TelegraphUnai Emery confident of improving Arsenal's attacking duo as he recalls previous coaching successes
Arsenal manager Unai Emery has promised to make Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette even better goalscorers using methods he says previously improved Kylian Mbappe and a host of other striking superstars.
Arsenal take their shaky away record to Everton on Sunday in search of the result that would take them above Tottenham and into third place in the Premier League table.
Inevitably the club will look to Aubameyang, who has 22 goals so far this season, and Lacazette, who is on 15, for end product.
Emery believes the pair can be even more prolific and revealed he is constantly demanding more from them in training sessions.
And it is certainly the case that the Spaniard has had an enviable list of forwards at his disposal from previous stints in charge of Valencia and Sevilla in La Liga and Paris St-Germain in Ligue 1.
"Every striker has developed with me in the past," he said. "I am very happy now, but I am very, very demanding of them to continue creating chances, and also scoring them.
"Individual scoring targets are what's best for the team. I did that in the past and in the present with them.
"In training I say to them, 'When I have one ball, in training, I imagine you'll score one goal, every time. Score, score, score'. That's my mentality – I push them with this mentality. That's the best development for them and for the team."
Emery reeled of a list of stellar forwards who have supplied goals for him in the past - David Villa, Fernando Morientes, Roberto Soldado and Aritz Aduriz at Valencia; Kevin Gameiro, Alvaro Negredo and Carlos Bacca at Sevilla, and Mbappe and Edinson Cavani.
Some of those mentioned failed to cut it in the Premier League - Soldado was a notable flop at Tottenham - but there is no doubt that they scored goals at Emery's former clubs. Villa scored 129 goals in 225 games, Soldado 81 in 141, ex-Manchester City man Negredo 85 in 182 and Bacca 49 in just 108. Cavani is fast approaching 200 for PSG.
"Each striker has his qualities and characteristics, but there is one similarity - they score a lot of goals," Emery said. "All of them. That's Villa, Negredo, Carlos Bacca, Gamiero, Cavani, Morientes, and Soldado, and now here Lacazette and Aubameyang. It's the same.
"But we need a lot of good passes, good crosses, to give them the best option to score in the box. For me, for now, we, Arsenal, can be proud that both are with us."
Emery has shown he is a coach who is unafraid to make tactical adjustments that leave one of his superstar strikers on the bench. Often they play together but sometimes with one out wide.
"I have the habit to have two strikers, or three strikers," he said. "Also in Spain at Sevilla I worked with Bacca, Gamiero and Iago Aspas. Three strikers.
"I want to play and have the best players. Here, with Aubameyang and Lacazette I am very happy with them. They are scoring, they are playing both roles, they are playing sometimes one behind the other, sometimes one's suspended. If there's an injury you have another, and we also have Eddie Nketiah working for the possibility to help us when one player or Aubameyang or Laca cannot play."
