Arsene Wenger pins his hopes on Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette forming a lethal partnership for Arsenal
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ARSENE WENGER is banking on Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette striking up a deadly partnership for Arsenal.
Sanchez is fit again and available for today’s Premier League clash at Liverpool — and it opens up the mouth-watering prospect of the Chilean playing alongside £44million club-record buy Lacazette.
Gunners boss Wenger has vowed to do all he can to keep Sanchez at the Emirates for the final year of his contract and persuade him to sign a new deal.
And the Frenchman hopes Lacazette’s arrival will convince Sanchez that, as a strike partnership, they can rip defences apart and seriously compete for the title.
He said: “Their co-operation looks promising. The two are good goalscorers, good finishers, good passers, have good assists — that means they can find each other.
“The rest will be more about the desire to play with each other, but usually the good players have that.”
When Luis Suarez moved from Liverpool to Barcelona three years ago, many wondered how well he would do with Neymar and Lionel Messi alongside him.
And Wenger admitted: “That was the question we all had when Suarez went to Barcelona and they had Neymar and Messi.
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“I had a conversation with Javier Mascherano before the season when Suarez moved there.
“We both came to the conclusion if it works, it’ll be fantastic, but it can be as well a disaster because they can kill each other.
“But one of the qualities of Suarez is he manages to get the best out of people around him. He did that at Liverpool. You had Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling — they scored over 100 goals.
“And that is a quality that is important and sometimes you cannot measure so much because you only look at the number of goals a guy has scored.
“But sometimes the way he can marry with people around him decides the quality of the team. And I think Sanchez and Lacazette should be able to do that. All the ingredients are there.”
Wenger believes that although Lacazette must adapt to English football, his Arsenal team-mates need to adapt to him.
He said: “Alexandre is a player when you look at his numbers, his assist numbers are good as well and he’s not an absolutely obsessed, selfish striker.
“You have many types of strikers and he is the one who is more of a combination player than a finisher. But if you look at his numbers, the quantity of his finishing compared to the rest of Europe is a bit below.
“That means he plays more in situations where he could have taken a shot rather than pass to others. He is a guy who doesn’t shoot a lot but, when he shoots, he finishes.
“You think sometimes during games, ‘Where is he?’ but when you watch the game again, you see he made a good pass here or his team-mates haven’t found him.
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“The team needs to adapt to him and it can take three or four months.”
Wenger admits that Lacazette has had a shock introduction to English football but has no doubt he will be a big success.
He added: “Alexandre is still in an adaptation period to the team and to the league. He’s a bit surprised by the intensity of it all in training and in the games.
“He will get there because he is brave and intelligent. The intelligence of his runs and the quality of his technique is very good. Overall I don’t worry for him.
“At the start he was completely taken by the intensity of it and he slowly adapts. I feel every week he is getting better.”
One thing though that is clear already to Wenger is that Lacazette has settled in with his team-mates off the pitch and is in a positive frame of mind.
The Gunners boss said: “He’s friendly with everybody. He looks a naturally friendly guy. He comes from a Caribbean family and they are quite extrovert, he smiles easily and is a happy boy.”
Arsenal paid Lyon £44m and Wenger added: “I believe he is a bargain compared to the fees being paid for strikers now.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp agrees and is also a fan of summer free transfer Sead Kolasinac, who played against him while the defender was at Schalke.
Klopp said: “They made good signings. SK is a good signing. Lacazette, of course pretty much the whole world thought about him and Arsene got him. A really good team.”
Klopp expects a tough afternoon trying to get the ball from Arsenal.
He added: “We compete for the same ball and then they can play football.
“They are all involved. Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez . . . Walcott, Giroud, Lazacette.
“It’s really difficult to step in but that is part of the game, you cannot play a little bit of football and hope you get anything from Arsenal — they are too strong.”
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