Can Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang give Harry Kane a run for his money?

Harry Kane has dominated the goalscoring charts in the Premier League, winning back to back Golden Boots and leading the way again as he seeks to win a third. It’s therefore refreshing to see the arrival of a new striker that boasts a phenomenal scoring record of his own, in the form of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal’s deadline day signing from Borussia Dortmund.

The Gabonese striker slots straight in at the top of our GW26 Armband Rankings but the big question is whether his Bundesliga form can translate to the Premier League?

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Aubameyang was pictured in training on Friday, dispelling earlier doubts that he would not be available to face Everton on Saturday, although there must be a strong possibility that Arsene Wenger elects to start him on the bench.

Using underlying stats is a great way to assess a player’s ability so we’ve taken a look at a comparison between Kane and Aubameyang over the course of their last 3 domestic seasons, courtesy of the excellent Understat website, to see how they stack up in terms of actual and expected goals, actual and expected assists, key passes and shots per 90 minutes.

The similarities are quite remarkable and it’s easy to see why Arsenal fans are getting so excited about their new capture – he could easily give Kane a run for his money in next season’s race for the Golden Boot if he can maintain those levels.

However, with doubts about exactly how much playing time he will get in GW26, fantasy football managers are likely to look elsewhere for a captain this weekend.

Now you might recall that we made a case for Romelu Lukaku based on the assumption that the arrival of Alexis Sánchez could trigger an improvement in the numbers of key passes Manchester United make on a game by game basis. Well, 4 at Wembley Stadium against Spurs on Wednesday was not the start we were hoping for but we are going to put that one down to the ridiculously early Christian Eriksen goal and see if Sánchez can help to put things right against Huddersfield Town and ignite that United attack.

Lukaku gets the GW26 Armband due to a very favourable match-up but we’ll be keeping a close eye on Aubameyang, with the Gunners also having the pick of this weekend’s fixtures.