When looking at the current Arsenal squad, it is evident that the best player and only genuine superstar on it is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. As a player, he is head and shoulders above the rest of his teammates, and it isn’t even close.
However, every star player needs a supporting cast.
So, just who is the second-best player on the Gunners?
Mesut Özil is not the force he once was; neither is Petr Čech. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a solid player, but he has never quite reached the level I’m speaking of. Granit Xhaka is maddeningly inconsistent.
However, I believe that Arsenal’s best player after Aubameyang is a player often overlooked for various reasons, but while not quite elite, is one of the most important pieces of this Arsenal team.
I am speaking about Alexandre Lacazette.
Not too long ago, Lacazette, who was then playing for Lyon, was perennially linked with a transfer to one of the world’s leading football clubs, such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain. However, in a surprising turn of events, it was Arsenal who ended up signing the highly sought-after Frenchman for €53 million.
This past week, he again reminded those other clubs what they missed out on when he scored Arsenal’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.
This was an impressive result for the north London club because they went into the game against the Merseysiders as the clear underdogs.
Lacazette and his contributions to Arsenal often get overlooked for several reasons: he is not as good a player as strike partner Aubameyang, his playstyle isn’t as eye-catching as those of Özil or Mkhitaryan, and he doesn’t have the sheer inner fire of the likes of Xhaka or Aaron Ramsey.
The centre-forward’s lack of recognition extends internally as well as externally.
This is reflected in the fact that despite being among Arsenal’s most consistent performers throughout the 2017-18 season, netting 14 league goals in 32 games, Lacazette was not named the club’s Player of the Month even once.
Yet in spite of all this, Lacazette has been a terrific fit on this team.
Lacazette’s willingness to track back, press, and play solid defence makes his style of play a good accompaniment to the spectacular, explosive game of Aubameyang. Furthermore, on offence, he brings solid dribbling skills and the ability to finish with either foot to the table.
Many players who move from a weaker league to one of the four major leagues initially struggle to adapt, while some never do. This has clearly not been the case for Lacazette, who has had no trouble adjusting to the higher level of play in the Premier League.
Lacazette has also been overlooked in his international football career.
Although he first played for France in 2013, Lacazette has just 16 caps for his country and has never played in a major tournament.
Lacazette has had to stay behind and watch as strikers who he is clearly better than, such as Olivier Giroud, André-Pierre Gignac, and Nabil Fekir were selected to represent Les Bleus in tournament play.
Giroud and Fekir were all part of France’s victorious 2018 World Cup squad – an honour which I believe Lacazette was extremely unfortunate to have missed out on.
The selection of Lacazette’s former Arsenal teammate Giroud was all the more surprising given the fact that Lacazette was clearly superior to Giroud throughout the 2017-18 season. In fact, Lacazette and Aubameyang’s arrivals at the Emirates Stadium made Giroud so expendable to Arsenal that he was shipped out to Chelsea during the January transfer window.
Lacazette’s form this season will be one of the key elements of how successful Arsenal will be during the current campaign. Much to the pleasure of Gunners fans, he is off to a strong start, with five league goals in 11 games.
Only time will tell if Lacazette ends up becoming the Dennis Bergkamp to Aubameyang’s Thierry Henry. So far, the two have combined seamlessly. On the other hand, there is still a possibility that he could flame out and prove that last season was just a flash in the pan.
But for now, as his solid play up front continues, Alexandre Lacazette does not deserve to be as underrated as he is.
No comments:
Post a Comment