Rio Ferdinand has called out Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette for relying on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for goals.
The Gunners are suffering a goal drought this season despite having an attack that has the previously named trio as well as Willian and Eddie Nketiah.
They had won the FA Cup and the Community Shield in August and fans will be forgiven for thinking that this is a campaign that they mount a serious title challenge or at least end in the top four.
They can still achieve any of those goals, but their current goal drought will not help them, and Aubameyang has mainly been blamed for the team’s struggle in that department.
The players have become accustomed to him scoring the goals for them, but now that he isn’t scoring Lacazette and Pepe should, that is what Ferdinand thinks.
‘What’s going on with you lot [Arsenal] over there?!’ Ferdinand told the FIVE YouTube channel as quoted by Metro Sports.
‘You’re lacking consistency. You’re searching for goals. There’s not 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.
‘Laca man! We need Laca to come up with some goals man! Pepe! When you get your chance come in and bang. We haven’t seen that cutting edge from this Arsenal team.
‘Arteta came in and steadied the ship and told them ‘This is what I’m doing, this is my team this is what I do at Arsenal’ and the players responded to it.
‘Aubameyang in particular was scoring goals but this just shows you how reliant this team is on Aubameyang. If he doesn’t score then Arsenal aren’t the same team man.’
The moment the creativity problem is solved especially in the mid-field, the goals will start coming.