But the Arsenal boss is hoping the 26-year-old can emulate Zlatan Ibrahimovic by setting the Premier League alight after hoping across the English Channel.
Wenger accepts there was a risk in signing the hitman, who has spent his entire career playing for Lyon despite an awesome record of 100 goals in 171 starts.
Lacazette will get his first taste of the Premier League tomorrow night when the Gunners kick off the Premier League season at home to Leicester.
And Wenger hopes he can have a similar impact on the Gunners as Swedish ace Ibrahimovic did at Manchester United last season scoring 28 goals after arriving from Paris St-Germain.
“His record in France is to score one in 80 minutes,” said Wenger. “If he can maintain that record that would be ideal for us.
“A goalscoring record is not necessarily transferable from the French league to the English league, that’s for sure.
“But you could say that Ibrahimovic transferred an identical amount of goals from France to England. So that’s the target Lacazette should set.”
Wenger also appeared to suggest Lacazette could find himself feeling homesick, having played all his football from the age of seven in Lyon.
“Lyon is a special place in France as they have their own mentality,” said Wenger.
“They don’t like to move away usually. They produce their own players, the players who grew up around Lyons like Nabil Fekir, Lacazette, Maxime Gonalons.
“They all stay in Lyon. They usually like to stay there. They are players with a special mentality and I did not know whether they wanted to move or not.
“Does he want to go abroad or not? It is a very specific French player at Lyon.”
Wenger has also taken a pop at Chelsea saying their boss Antonio Conte has no reason to moan about his small squad - as he has so many players out on loan.
Despite signing Alvaro Morata for £70m, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger and Willy Caballero, Conte still feels he needs more players to stand a chance of defending their league title.
But Wenger pointed out that the Blues actually have too many players on their books rather than not enough.
“Maybe he has the opposite problem,” said the Frenchman. “If you look at the number of players that are out on loan, they can call a few back.
“I have sympathy for him. But do I feel sorry for Chelsea because they don’t have enough players? Then no.”
Meanwhile, Wenger insists he did not come close to signing Leicester playmaker Riyad Mahrez, despite being constantly linked this summer with the £50m-rated star.
“I rate him as a player but we have similar types with Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere when he’s back. and Mesut Ozil,” said Wenger. “We have plenty of the same type of players.”
