ALEX Lacazette is one of the terrace favourites of the current Arsenal squad. His endeavour is always appreciated by the Emirates crowd and his goalscoring record in home games is good too. He was voted the club’s Player of the Season by Arsenal fans in 2018-19. However, lately he has been in something of a funk and statistics around his unimpressive goal contribution away from home have begun to circulate.
This has led to criticism from some quarters – more so online than inside the stadium. That’s perfectly natural of course, his form has dipped in recent weeks and that always leads to increased scrutiny. The speed with which we make firm conclusions about players has increased in the digital age. Aubameyang’s contribution was heavily criticised by many after goalless appearances against Everton and Manchester City.
Goals in his last two fixtures have quelled dissenting voices. There is also a curious online phenomenon that sees fans ostensibly pit players against one another. There is a corner of the internet that draws very distinct camps when it comes to Aubameyang and Lacazette, dousing the candle of one to make the other’s light burn a little brighter, all in the pursuit of point scoring in the online battle field.
Unless we're playing a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-1-2, Lacazette shouldn't be a starter. I only say what I see. Aubameyang CF, 2 proper ball carriers on either side. If I were Raul, I'd be looking at Zaha to replace Lacazette. We have Martinelli and Eddie coming through, good enough backups.
— LTArsenal™ (@ltarsenal) December 29, 2019
Lacazette has four goals in his last seven Arsenal appearances, which is not terrible. Part of the issue is that two of those efforts came in a 2-2 draw against Southampton that nobody remembers too fondly, one came in a 2-1 defeat to Brighton that Arsenal fans would rather forget and one arrived in a 2-2 draw with Standard Liege that many supporters genuinely forgot about altogether.
When a player hits some indifferent form, their past efforts are often re-litigated ungenerously too. However, putting all of this to one side, nobody could claim that the Frenchman is operating at peak form at the moment. He has cut a frustrated figure; booked in each of his last two appearances for acts of frustration – he didn’t even celebrate his stoppage time equaliser against Southampton last month. In fact, he almost looked sorry that he scored at all.
So why is he in such a funk? We have seen this before. During his first season at Arsenal, Lacazette endured a crisis of confidence and scored only once in 12 Premier League games between December and February. This culminated in the striker missing a gilt-edged chance to equalise in stoppage time during a 1-0 defeat to Spurs in February 2018. After the game, he underwent knee surgery and by the time he returned, Aubameyang was in fine fettle and Alex rediscovered his touch.
Players do sometimes just lose form unexpectedly, it happens. It happens more often in underperforming teams. I would pinpoint his ankle injury from the Emirates Cup as a significant factor in his recent ennui. There is no good time to get injured but picking up an injury right at the end of pre-season is the worst time imaginable. Very few players that pick up a knock in late July rediscover their best form before the New Year. It is immensely disruptive.
155 – Best French scorers in the Top 5 European leagues in the past decade:
Karim Benzema – 155 goals
Antoine Griezmann – 141
Alexandre Lacazette – 132
Kevin Gameiro – 118
Wissam Ben Yedder – 114
BleuBlancRouge.#Opta2010s pic.twitter.com/MBF2zg2za8
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 27, 2019
To make matters worse, Lacazette came back from that problem too early and tried to struggle through the opening weeks of the campaign, before Arsenal took the decision to give him six weeks off to rid him of the niggle once and for all. Allied to this is the fact that the Gunners’ frontline still hasn’t settled into any kind of familiar shape, with Nicolas Pepe also struggling to establish himself.
Interim coach Freddie Ljungberg said he could not field Aubameyang and Lacazette in the same team and opted to name the Frenchman on the bench, which seems to have further knocked his confidence and possibly even his rhythm. Under Unai Emery, there was little structure to the way Arsenal attacked; Aubameyang and Lacazette [and Özil when selected] were largely left to their own devices to produce individual moments of inspiration.
In short, the attackers haven’t really been supported. That changed for Lacazette at Bournemouth, where he found a regular supply line. He couldn’t capitalise on those situations- be it due to confidence, rhythm or fitness. He hasn’t become a bad player overnight, if Arsenal are consistently able to provide him with service under Mikel Arteta, his form will return eventually. Like everything with Arsenal at the moment, we might have to be a little patient.
