Arsenal legend Alan Smith admits he’s concerned by the form of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe, Willian and Alexandre Lacazette ahead of Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Leeds United, speaking to Sky Sports.
While Mikel Arteta deserves huge credit for giving the Gunners a defensive backbone – that 3-0 thrashing at home to Aston Villa aside – the London giants appear to have stumbled on major problems at the other end of the pitch.
Arsenal have lost three of their last four league games and haven’t scored from open play in six hours.
Lacazette looks a shadow of his former self, missing sitters in defeats to Leicester City and Villa. Meanwhile, Aubameyang’s left-wing role is starting to become a point of concern for many fans.
And less said about 32-year-old Willian, only weeks into his £220k-a-week, three-year contract, the better.
No wonder Smith is concerned, with only a handful of teams scoring fewer goals than eleventh-place Arsenal in the opening weeks of the season.
“Aubameyang is not quite himself – they need to get the best out of him,” says Smith, a First Division winner in 1989 and 1991.
“I think he’s only got one goal from open play in the league this season and that was on the opening day. Arsenal have leant on him too heavily and you need to have other players stepping up.
“Willian has come in and not quite reached the levels he had at Chelsea. Pepe is hot and cold, for £70-odd million that’s been a disappointment.
“Lacazette as well. He’s not kicked on from his first season so that’s another concern. Eddie Nketiah is a little too young and inexperienced to lean on him week in, week out.
“So that’s an area Arteta may be worried about.”
£72 million record-signing Pepe may be “hot and cold” but there’s a growing clamour for the Ivorian to replace a lukewarm Willian in Arteta’s starting XI.
Pepe has started just one Premier League game this season and continues to flit from frustrating to phenomenal.
But when focused and firing, the former Lille ace is a genuine match-winner capable of changing a game in the blink of an eye.
That’s more than can be said for Willian right now.
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