Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette wins first round against Alvaro Morata

While Alvaro Morata was busy dragging penalties wide, Alexandre Lacazette was looking sharp. The two strikers will forever be compared to one another but the first round went to the Arsenal man.

The striking additions made by Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United will forever be compared and contrasted to one another. All three were signed for substantial figures — two broke their respective club records –, all are expected to challenge for the Golden Boot by the end of the year, and the hope is that each one will fire their teams to a sustained, genuine and successful title challenge.

Rightly or wrongly, in the ever ruthless footballing media world, that is what will happen. And in the equally snappy and demanding realm that we live in, such judgements will be made quickly and with certainty, even if they lack accuracy.

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Well, given that Chelsea and Arsenal played out the Community Shield on Sunday, we got our first look at two of the three protagonists. Only Alexandre Lacazette started, with Alvaro Morata deemed unfit to start by Antonio Conte, instead opting for Michy Batshuayi, but the Spaniard was introduced late on, much to the joy of the Arsenal faithful given what happened later.

After Thibault Courtois had skied his penalty, Morata stepped up, needing to score, given the increased pressure that the newly implemented ABBA system imposes. Looking a little worried, he attempted to cut across his body, firing a shot into the bottom left corner. Petr Cech went the right way but was nowhere near saving it. That’s because it was nowhere near the goal, pulled a yard or two past the upright.

While missing penalty is not necessarily a sign that a player is good or bad — it is, after all, merely kicking a ball –, it undoubtedly gave the early upper hand to Lacazette in the quest to be this summer’s star striker.

The Frenchman looked very sharp, especially in the first half, with a number of neat touches, quick turns and darts forward that excited the fans. He struck the foot of the post with a lovely curled effort and was close to converting a number of Alex Iwobi crosses after showing intelligence and anticipation to locate where the danger was.

Morata himself had a couple of nice touches. He was strong under the challenge from Rob Holding to win a foul late in the game, holding the ball up well in the process, something that Batshuayi was unable to do throughout, and nearly scored from the resultant free kick, glancing a header just past the post.

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Both players showed signs that they can flourish in the Premier League. But thanks to one mistimed penalty, it was Lacazette who won round one.

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