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How does the Arsenal front three compare with the rest of the top-six

It is obviously too early to say categorically because we do not know yet how Nicolas Pepe will adapt to the English game but that does not mean we cannot compare the front three of the top six based on what we know about the particular players.

I mean, if Aston Villa bought Messi, Mbappe and Neymar we could safely say that they have the best front three even though none of them has played in the English Premier League.

So, let’s start with the Champions and work backwards.

Man City obviously have an outstanding front three, in fact, they have a wonderful front five or six and any team that can put out Sterling, Aguero and Jesus can sit comfortably knowing that they will frighten the hell out pf any defence.

Liverpool can field Salah, Mane and Firmino and no matter how you look at it, that is one hell of a formidable strike force as they proved time and time again last season.

Chelsea have lost Eden Hazard and it is a little difficult now to know what the best front three will be, they have Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Batshuayi, Pedro and Abraham but any combination of those players does fall short in comparison to the other top-six sides in my opinion.

Tottenham do have a top-class front three in Kane, Son and Moura and I cannot get tribal on this, those three as a combination are as good as any other front three in the Premier League.

Man Utd is a bit like Chelsea in that it is difficult to work out what their front three would look like. I mean, on paper a front three out of Martial, Sanchez, Lukaku and Rashford should frighten the hell out of any opponent but if there was ever proof that players with huge reputations at a huge club does not always equal success, United is it.

Arsenal obviously now have Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe and in my biased opinion, I would say that is a front three that is at least equal to what Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham have and better than what Chelsea and Man Utd can offer.

One thing is for sure though, the Premier League is going to be on fire next season.

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47 Comments

  1. I think that we are just behind Spurs. City and Liverpool in terms of back three because their back three have experience playing together. Pepe hasn’t even trained with the others yet

    But a lot of potential to be as good.

      1. Our front 2 was just as good as spurs so if pepe plays half as well he did in France it would put us just behind city and Liverpool in attack. Moura is overrated and son play better without Kane.

        Liverpool trio is ridiculously compatible as long as Salah and mane ego doesn’t get in the way and man city sheer number of top offensive players is ridiculous.

        1. If you’re comparing Auba and Laca as a duo then you should compsre them to Harry Kane fine.But you can’t compare both to Son or Moura because those two players are wingers.

  4. Aubameyang – 25 goals
    Lacazette – 20 goals
    Pepe – 15 goals
    Others – 30 goals

    Sum total – 90 goals

    90+ goals can actually take us to 3rd position. Hopefully our defenders mature and improve this season.

    2. AT LIST THIS ONE HAS LIFE IN THIS YERS EPL NO MTTER WHAT IT MEANS OR WHO COMES ON OUR WAY WE SHALL PROVE THAT ON THE FIRST GAME OF NEW CASTLE UNITED.

  5. Thank you AdminMart, i think this article should have 2nd part-defence. I will be expecting.
    Just like the article showed, our attack is just among the top EPL contender. If we look at individual performance last season, our attack is the best but based on variables, like Pepe in new environment and so on, we shouldnt be far off. Pepe shoul quickly settle like Auba, i hope am right.
    One of things am wrong about though is Lucas Perez, i cant believe the young man could even find his foot at westham. From 17m to 2m, thats unbelievable. To think i was among the people clamouring for him to start ahead of Giroud. This is another eye opener-managers knows better than fans,that doesnt mean they are always right though, we are all human

  6. My team for Newcastle if certain players are being rested.
    Pepe, Cabellos, Guendouzi, Torreira and Lacazette might not feature due to late return to training camp and injury precaution.

    Martinelli. Aubameyang. Mkhitaryan.

    Ozil.

    Willock. Xhaka.

    Kolasinac. Sokratis. Mustafi. M. Niles.

    Leno

  7. I’m confident that Pepe would thrive on the right side, because he has been playing well there for Lille in two consecutive seasons, he is young and he has good physical attributes

    Whereas Lacazette and Aubameyang are the best strikers in EPL currently

    My only concern is just Aubameyang would be forced to play on the left, where he rarely played well. I predict we would see some reshuffle on the LW position, between Iwobi, Nelson and Aubameyang

    2. If Auba, Laca, and Pepe are healthy you start all 3, why reshuffle? Iwobi can come off the bench and compete with Martinelli.

      Auba on LW any day over Iwobi; Iwobi can dribble but his finishing and decisions in final third are woeful.

      I like Iwobi off the bench, but no way he should start, “reshuffle” or not.

  8. One interesting thing about the front three of the other teams you mentioned is that they all have balance.This Arsenal team has a striker playing as a winger which means it is imbalanced.
    Now since we have offered both new contracts as the new administration told us they would we will be forced to play one out of position.
    So what I will say is that there us huge pressure on Nicolas Pepe because he will have to provide the team with the dribbling or cutting edge it needs because none of our strikers are as good on the wings and aren’t good at beating their man or crossing.

    1. so, a striker playing on the left is unbalanced….like a certain Crisitano Ronaldo did for so long? If Real Madrid with Ronaldo were unbalanced, I hope we too can be unbalanced!

      1. Ronaldo has been playing primarily on the left for almost a decade now though. Messi’s move to the right is more recent, though he has always been more of a general forward than an out & out striker like Aubameyang. Auba has a history of playing wide, but it was never his best position. I think we’ll just have to wait and see how everything pans out honestly. Surely, it is Unai’s plan for all three to start though. And I do think Laca down the middle gives us more balance than Auba does.

        1. Ronaldo in this terms cant be compared to Aubameyang because Ronaldo has been a wing forward for many years and even Ronaldo is never an out and out striker.Aubameyang is a pure striker.He defines that term very well.He’s generally poor at the wings and he’s even better at RW which will now be taken by Nicolas Pepe.

          1. Auba has played on the wings at both St. Etienne and Dortmund. Lewy was still Dortmund’s CF when he first moved so he had to play on RW for most the first season (I think he still got double digit goal tho). I agree that in term of LW, he has very little history there, and he didn’t look too amazing when we put him there last season. I think he will have to find a way to make that position his though, because laca is more of a pure striker than even Auba, and we do look our best with Laca upfront. Either way, I am so happy to have this problem to begin with lol.

          2. Yes, it is a fact that he played at the wings for those two clubs but he was impressive in his actual position(CF).After Lewa left to Bayern then he had more chances to play in his preferred position where his tally increased considerably compared to his previous seasons.Also I disagree with Laca being a pure striker than Auba and I think you’ll find Laca is more flexible in his play that is why some even suggest using him at AM or SS.Auba was also last season’s top scorer and that mainly cane by playing his position.I don’t think Auba at the wings will be a successful project and I expect that by the time next season ends there will be a compromise somewhere.Someone will have to give.Last season we got away with it because Emery used the three back and also we weren’t going for the title so it was all about using systems even if unsustainable to get to the top 4.

      2. It is unbalanced because we are playing him out of position and he is not that good out of position.
        That is why he had his best matches playing CF along with Laca last season but that also meant we use another system which doesnt suit us,the three back system.

    2. Kev we also have Ceballos to dribble and defenders have to shadow him which creates space for front 3. With Pepe and Ceballos in midfield our attack isn’t relying on Laca and Auba to do everything like last year.

      When Bellerin and Tierney they can also take on defenders and their width up top also creates space.

      I think our attack will be so different from last year that I think it will resemble the Liverpool trio.

      1. Liverpool have Salah and Mane who are true wingers,can beat their man and score lots of goals.That is how come they can get away with playing Firminho as a striker.
        Our attack is nothing like theirs in terms of style

        1. Salah played the same wing as Mane for his entire career (I think) up to and beyond Che. A lot of people liked Salah allot, Kev, but I think everyone is surprised by his goal-scoring ability. He still moves like a winger when he has the ball dodging in and around and swiveling all over the place. I think the point you made about Messi can be made for Salah, more of an all round forward ..as in can play in different areas ..rather than central being his main forte. It was so much surprising that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  9. I understand there is a lot of joy at the moment, and I hate to seem negative, but the window hasn’t shut yet, so we could still lose a key player.

    I have been repeating myself a lot over this, but we should not only brace ourselves for the possibility of losing Auba, we should applaud it! Because I know exactly how the fans will respond: Same old Arsenal, Kroenke out, etc.

    There will be a lot of anger. I have heard no news at on this, I am just going on what the new board said about selling players with 2 years left on their contract if no extension has been agreed (which is Auba’s current situation). What I like about the board is that they’re much tougher on the players, decisive, and so far, are making solid economic decisions. So it would be sign of weakness, and very poor economics (especially within our self sustaining model), to let Auba drift into the final year of his contract. Especially given the hundreds of millions that Wenger and Gazadis have cost us in recent years, doing the same thing, or worse.

    As fans, we have been begging for the consistent devaluation of our assets to stop. As painful as it would be to lose Auba, we should applaud the decision, as it will allow us to reinvest.

    So of course, enjoy the Pepe signing, just as I am, but I would advise not going over the top (either angry or happy) until the transfer window is shut, and assessments can be made.

    1. I hope that Mislintat has nothing to do with this. Mislintat has been in trouble before about how close he is with the players he spots and brings over. He comes across to me as a guy who does hold a grudge. I’ve heard him recently talking about how he was promised the job he wanted but AFC went back on it. I don’t like when they go through the media to carry on a spat. Who knows what he’s been saying to Auba, might have even said it looks like they just wanted me so they could grab some Dortmund players. I hope Auba signs, the fans love him and with some right transfer movement Arsenal can be back competing for top prizes, but this would be a huge set-back. I hope Pepe was not bought because we feel our hands were tied over Auba refusing to renegotiate terms.

  11. We need to start strongly, therefore play our best team, Willock is one for the future, just like Nketiah and Bakayo Saka and ors. I am very excited and just cannot wait; IF ONLY one in the middle still and one at the back, we will be set to compete.

    1. Ha excellent point. I see people also don’t like Auba on LW, so hope they consider this.

      It’s a fluid front 3; they are consistently switching and interchanging to exploit any mismatches with defenders.

  14. its unbalanced but i think lacazette can play as a 10.
    his footwork his good and he is a better team player than auba.
    iwobi should play on the LW. auba as ST. Pepe as RW. laca as 10.
    OR auba and laca can shuffle RW and ST while iwobi plays 10.
    what do u think.

    but our defence is crap. especially as bellerin is injured. mustafi and chambers are error prone and tiernery is ” injury prone” or may be not that injury prone

  15. Admin Martin?
    You’ve talked of Man City having a front-three and up to having a front-four and to a front-five. This the kind of fronts that I want Arsenal to have this summer. So that they’ll limit themselves to having only a front-three. But up to at least a scary front-four that is devastating in attack always in the PL week in week out. For the purpose of having a front-four that will be awesome to all 5 Arsenal top 5 PL rivals, Arsenal have to upgrade the average standard of playing at the left wing position of their 1st team squad for next season’s campaign if they are to challenge for the Premier League title win next season but not limit themselves to only finish the 3 top places below the top spot. Which can be risky if something happened to one their scary top three-front line. But a top front-four line will guaranteed a top-four PL finish and even finish as title winners if noting like injury happens to any of the front-four . Arsenal should bring Everton Soares to the Emirates Stadium this summer to complete a front-four that will scary to play against by all PL close rivals top club sides and none close teams in the PL next season.

  16. Man City has the toughest front 3 in the league followed by Liverpool. With Man United is never clear, we never know Sanchez click to old form as well as Rashford maturing like Lukaku. Chelsea in the other hand is badly hurt.

  17. Admin Martin?
    You’ve talked of Man City having a front-three and up to having a front-four and to a front-five. This is the kind of fronts that I want Arsenal to have this summer. So that they’ll not limit themselves to having only a front-three. But up to at least a scary front-four that is devastating in attack always in the PL week in week out. For the purpose of having a front-four that will be awesome to all the Arsenal top 5 PL rivals, Arsenal have to upgrade the average standard of playing that is existing at the left wing position in their 1st team squad for next season’s campaign if they are to challenge for the Premier League title win next season but not limit themselves to only getting a finish to one of the 3 top places below the top spot. Which can be risky should something happens to one of their scary top three-front line. But a top front-four line will guaranteed a top-four PL place finish and even could finish as title winners if noting like injury happens to any of the front-four during the campaign. Therefore, Arsenal should bring Everton Soares to the Emirates Stadium this summer to complete a front-four that will be scary to want to play against by all their PL close rivals top club sides and none close rivals club sides in the PL next season.

  18. Is it that you do not rate Nelson, Saka, Martinelli or ESR? But you could mention Chelsea’s young talents? Those boys are quality and mind you, I rate Nelson higher than Pulisic

    1. Pulisic is definitely better by a large margin. Nelson is still developing and learning. Pulisic has to put his horrible national team on his back and got them to Gold Cup Final.

  19. I’m going to try and put my obvious bias aside if I can. If I’m being honest, I have to say that ours is just miles better than the rest, maybe if you pick and choose from Liv and City then you might get some competition going but that is a biiig IF.

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