Rio Ferdinand has urged Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette to step-up and stop relying on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Aubameyang and his Arsenal teammates were on the end of a humiliating defeat at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to goals from Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence.
The former Manchester United defender claimed that when the Gabon international doesn’t score those around him fail to step-up.
Ferdinand said: “What’s going on with you lot [Arsenal] over there?! You’re lacking consistency. You’re searching for goals. There’s no goals in the team at the moment. When Aubameyang doesn’t bang, nobody else seems to be stepping up, that’s the problem.
“I love the way Arteta is bringing the young players in and the young players have been performing but sometimes you need the experienced players to drag you through a situation like this.” (via Rio Ferdinand)
Whose fault is Arsenal's struggles to score goals?
Arteta
Players
The former England defender is correct that the duo next to the African have somewhat failed given how shocking the Reds have been during Aubameyang’s barren run in front of goal. With the 31-year-old having failed to score from open play since the opening day win over Fulham, his attacking company in Willian, Pepe and Lacazette have scored just three goals.
However, whilst it may be easy to pick out the attacking players for their lack of goals, the supply behind them have been non-existent. The game against Wolves was just one example of poor supply into the box with the Gunners producing 35 crosses, but, completing just three.
You can be the best player in the world, nonetheless, you aren’t getting much help from your teammates in midfield then you’re going to struggle. And the failures of the likes of Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos were extremely clear all season.
Whilst the Spain international has played just one key pass per league game all campaign, his Swiss counterpart averages just 0.8. Any sort of killer supply into the final third doesn’t exist and is the root cause of the attacking problems rather than just the attackers alongside the club captain.
In other news, Jack Wilshere has begged the club to re-introduce one player back into the fold.
