Alexandre Lacazette can become an Arsenal great – but we need to get the best out of him, says Petr Cech

Petr Cech has admitted Arsenal still need to adapt to Alexandre Lacazette’s style of play but insists fans will soon see the best of the club’s record signing.

Lacazette has scored eight goals in 18 Premier League appearances since his £52.7million summer move from Lyon. The 26-year-old has completed 90 minutes just twice as manager Arsene Wenger claims Lacazette still needs time to adapt to the rigours of English football - a sentiment some supporters do not seem to be in agreement with after his 73rd-minute substitution during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Newcastle was greeted with boos from sections of Emirates Stadium.

And Cech believes it is his team-mates who need to ensure Lacazette thrives by providing him with better service in the second half of the season.

“Alex is a very intelligent player,” Cech told Standard Sport. “The way he plays, obviously, he has adapted quickly to the way we play. I think we, as a team, we need to get more out of him because sometimes he makes a very good movement but the ball does not arrive every time at the right moment.

“I think it’s a matter of time [before we see his best]. But for a player who has just come to the Premier League, he’s had a pretty good run. He has immense quality in front of goal. If you see his ratio from how many shots he actually takes, it’s just a matter of time before more goals will come.”

Lacazette’s eight goals have come from just 40 shots, giving him a conversion rate of 20 per cent. Seven players have scored more in the League - Mohamed Salah (13), Harry Kane (12), Raheem Sterling (11), Sergio Aguero (10), Romelu Lukaku (9), Alvaro Morata (9) and Wayne Rooney (9) - but only three have a better percentage rate.

The France striker is likely to be rested for the League Cup quarter-final clash against West Ham in preparation for Friday’s League visit of Liverpool.

The reverse fixture in August remains a painful memory for Arsenal as they were thrashed 4-0 in what turned out to be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s final appearance before moving to Anfield in a £40m deal. The Gunners were heavily criticised for their performance that day and Cech admitted: “It was probably one of the worst experiences I have had as a player.

“We got battered. When you stand there at 4-0 down - and you can see it could have been even more because the performance was that poor, probably the worst game we played all season - we need to make sure this time we are ready.

“But we improved after that game. In the next game, we played Chelsea away, we got a clean sheet, we got a 0-0, we played really well. It was probably a good slap and showed that in this League when you are not ready you can get hammered.”

Arsenal’s win over Newcastle was secured through a sumptuous Mesut Ozil volley which Cech claimed was reminiscent of one of the great European goals. “It was a fantastic goal,” he said. “It made me think of the [Zinedine] Zidane goal in the [2002] Champions League Final in Glasgow against [Bayer] Leverkusen. Mesut had a fantastic game, the whole game, he was brilliant.”

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