If you are wondering what’s wrong with two of our most important players, Aubameyang and Lacazette, you are not alone. Both of them missed the opening game we lost against Brentford and probably won’t feature against Chelsea this Sunday if you believe the Twitter rumors!
Team news before the match said both Lacazette and Aubameyang were ruled out through illness without giving any other details. I’m not good in controversy theories but if you are sick with Covid, what’s the problem in just stating it? You are accountable to the fans who support and giving them a clear reason certainly helps in not letting these twitter warriors speculate things.
When asked about it in post match conference, it felt like Mikel kept avoiding a direct and clear answer. This is what he has to say on three different times when asked about the two strikers.
About their absence and how long they will be out for…
I don’t know, but I certainly don’t want to use any excuses. We had a team that we put out that’s good enough to play the way that we wanted to play and capable of achieving a different result.
The impact their absence had…
Congratulations to Brentford. I don’t want to use any excuses.
On missing Aubameyang and Lacazette…
Obviously they’re massive players, but we’ve got enough quality in the squad to do it.
source : https://arsenal.com
Now, this would have sounded just fine if we have gone out and thrashed Brentford 3-0. Things didn’t really go well, we lost to a team who got promoted for the very first time in this new era of Premier League, who had more fight in themselves than us and played like they wanted that win.
We lacked a striker, seeing a 19-year old Balogun thrown into a top flight match when Arteta gave most of the game time to Laca & Auba during preseasons didn’t feel right. You can’t throw in Martinelli, Balogun and Pepe and expect them to develop a chemistry in 90min. I’m not saying it’s the players fault, they are our future and I’m sure they would be great in coming years but shouldn’t they be eased out in the team slowly?
If it’s an illness, we fans and supporters demand a better explanation. If it’s something else, which most of us are speculating, there is no harm in coming out and owning it. Auba was not doing enough any way and losing matches for the cost of young player’s development is still better than playing Willian & Auba and losing!
I don’t know but it looks more like Ozil fiasco. Hopefully we will have an answer before we play Chelsea. Next two matches are tough.
