Alexandre Lacazette may have arrived as Arsenal’s all-time record signing but manager Arsene Wenger is not in the mood for offering any assurances as another Premier League campaign begins.
The 26-year-old is expected to make his home debut against Leicester City at Emirates Stadium this evening as the Gunners aim to improve on a dismal recent record in the first match of the season.
Arsenal have won just one of their last seven matches on the opening weekend – and even that was a frantic 2-1 win against Crystal Palace in 2014 courtesy of Aaron Ramsey’s stoppage-time winner – but Lacazette’s addition is one cause for fresh optimism this time around.
Olivier Giroud has become one of those players seemingly emblematic of the repetitive cycle Arsenal find themselves in: likeable, unsurpassed on a going day yet fundamentally flawed and lacking consistency to deliver the biggest prizes.
Giroud is seemingly doomed never to escape this assessment. He was booed on occasion by French supporters during their run to the final of Euro 2016, yet he has 17 goals in his last 18 starts an international level.
Given the price tag and goal record at Lyon – where he scored 76 Ligue 1 goals in 97 appearances across the last three seasons – Lacazette is viewed as an upgrade and yet he watched that tournament at home.
Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps had his reasons for the omission, chiefly that he believed Giroud to be a better foil for Antoine Griezmann, the team’s undisputed star, with Andre-Pierre Gignac a more suitable deputy than Lacazette, or for that matter, fellow Lyon forward Nabil Fekir.
Lacazette has just 11 international caps to his name but price tags almost always influence perceptions; the £52.7million man surely begins this campaign ahead of Giroud for club yet behind him for country.
In Pictures | Arsenal sign Alexandre Lacazette | 05/07/2017
Wenger insists there is no pecking order. “We have two top class strikers. Olivier Giroud will play, Lacazette will play. There is not a definite priority. They are a different style of player and they can play together as well.”
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Wenger is typically fond of attacking players with versatility and Lacazette is no different. It remains eminently possible Lacazette could indeed play in the same line-up as Giroud given the former was used in pre-season in support of a central striker as part of the 3-4-2-1 system Arsenal will begin this season with.
Lacazette scored against Sydney FC and Sevilla in pre-season before leading the attack against Chelsea in last weekend’s Community Shield against Chelsea. A somewhat underwhelming performance almost yielded a first-half goal out of nothing, creating space in the box to curl a right-foot shot against Thibaut Courtois’s left-hand post.
Lacazette’s impressive goals-to-games ratio will only encourage Wenger to utilise him through the middle and it is difficult to imagine Arsenal’s preferred front three will not comprise Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in support once the pair return to full fitness (and assuming both stay put).
Wenger admitted the possibility of Lacazette replicating that form in English football was unlikely but urged him to follow Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s lead; the Swede was greeted with scepticism upon his move to Manchester United last summer despite scoring 156 goals in 180 games for Paris Saint Germain but he went on to score 28 goals in all competitions.
Arsenal in training ahead of season opener | 10/8/2017
“I think he is a player who can integrate well with the way we want to play football, first of all, because he is a mobile player, he is technically assured and he can integrate connections and combination play and as well he has a good goalscoring record,” Wenger told NBC.
“In France, he was at one for every 80 minutes so that is quite good. Can he transfer that to England? But of course it is a good question because that will be his challenge. I think that’s maybe a bit ambitious for the English league but we have seen as well examples like Ibrahimovic who has done it so that’s a good example to follow.”
Ibrahimovic had to overcome doubts about his age, arriving as he did at 34 years old but Lacazette should be about to hit the peak of his career.
Given the larger sums rivals have spent on strikers – United in acquiring Romelu Lukaku and Chelsea’s capture of Alvaro Morata – Wenger already believes Lacazette represents good value.
“I am happy because if you look at the players we got in and the money we spent, I think we spent good money but it was not out of control on the transfer side,” he said.
“In any area if we find the exceptional player – we have very good players – only if we find the top player who gives you a real guaranteed plus, we will do it. Is it at the back? Is it in the middle or up front? It has to be an exceptional opportunity because all our players are good.”
The time for Lacazette to prove that has come.