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Arsenal, Chelsea: Top 5 strikers left on the transfer market

By Tom Bogert

LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 21: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 21, 2016 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images)
LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 21: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 21, 2016 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images) /
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LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 21: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund celebrates as he scores their first goal during the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 21, 2016 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images)
LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 21: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund celebrates as he scores their first goal during the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 21, 2016 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images) /

1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang /// Dortmund /// 27 years old /// 28 (3) league apps /// 25 goals

Manchester City had been most heavily linked with the Gabonese striker scorching the Bundesliga but they’ve got to be out of the race after that Sane signing.

That’s brilliant news for Arsenal and Chelsea, then.

Arsenal had a deal in place to sign Jamie Vardy earlier in the window before Vardy decided to stay at Leicester (for less money, mind.) Aubameyang is pretty much Vardy if you injected Vardy with Russian government sanctioned performance enhancing drugs and made him two years younger. At Arsenal, he’d make them ruinous on the counter and he’d be good enough to combine in the system that Wenger enjoys to deploy.

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Perhaps Aubameyang would fit more fluidly at Chelsea under Conte’s likely counter-pressing system, a similar one to what he played at Dortmund. If it is true that Costa is on the outs, then they’d surely have pace in abundance with Aubameyang and Batshuayi. Somewhere in Germany, Per Mertesacker has begun to melt.

Aubameyang’s pace is absolutely memorizing, it always has been. But since he joined Dortmund he rounded out his game and rapidly improved his finishing as he’s improved his goal tally each season since being imported to Germany from St. Etienne in France.

The fee would be the biggest stumbling block. Dortmund could command Luis Suarez money for their star striker and that’d be reasonable. Probably even more, to be honest, because of natural inflation and even more money being pumped into the modern game.

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