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Arsenal strike duo looking to fire themselves in to Golden Boot contention this season

By on September 5, 2018

pierre-emerick aubameyang arsenal

The race for the Premier League Golden Boot will be fierce this season and Arsenal’s Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette could be right in the mix come May.

Aubameyang joined Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund last winter and settled in to life in England immediately after scoring 10 goals in his 13 league appearances – which was an outstanding return considering our situation.

The Gabon international had already netted 13 times in his 16 games for Dortmund before moving to north London in January so he scored 31 goals in 38 appearances in total last season.

It was certainly no fluke as Aubameyang scored a sensational 40 goals in the 2016/17 campaign and 39 the year prior so he’s undoubtedly one of the best goal-scorers in European football right now.

Therefore, when fans are asked who will be the Premier League’s next Golden Boot winner, it’s easy to understand why Aubameyang is one of the first names on people’s list as he’s among the favourites with the bookmakers at odds of around 7/1.

He has made a slow start with just 1 goal in 4 appearances but Arsenal faced a tough opening few games and Unai Emery is beginning to implement his ideas on the team so I think Auba will bag over 25 league goals this season.

Much of his success could be down to his relationship with strike-partner Lacazette. Emery started the Frenchman for the first time last weekend and he repaid the boss by scoring the winner during a 3-2 win over Cardiff.

Lacazette is one of the best finishers in the Premier League and enjoyed a solid debut season in England after netting 17 times last year so he’ll be desperate to build on that return this campaign.

The 27-year-old scored 37 goals for Lyon in 2016/17, 23 in 2015/16 and 31 in 2014/15 so he has an excellent track record of scoring well over 20 goals per season but his chances of lifting the Golden Boot will obviously hinge on whether he can cement himself under Emery.

Lacazette will have no chance if he continues to be used as a substitute but if Emery decides to start the Frenchman on a regular basis up front then his odds of 25/1 to win the Golden Boot will look very tempting.

Whoever starts in attack for Arsenal out of Aubameyang and Lacazette has a great chance of scoring 25+ goals this season but they will still face stiff competition for the Golden Boot with the likes of Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, Romelu Lukaku and Sergio Aguero also in the running.

Kane has won the award in two of the past three seasons but missed out to Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah last season and they are the leading candidates with the bookmakers again this campaign.

Aguero and Lukaku have already netted three times each this season and they have the potential to be right up there at the end of the campaign so it’s going to be an interesting battle for the Golden Boot.