Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette mishap can’t be dwelt on now

Arsenal were absolutely robbed of another Alexandre Lacazette goal by a blatantly incorrect offside call. But all we can do now is move on.

There were a lot of narratives that stemmed off of Arsenal’s disappointing 1-0 loss to Stoke City, but of them all, I think the one that hit the hardest and will stay the longest was the disallowed goal by Alexandre Lacazette.

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The Frenchman scored a beauty, but the celebration was short-lived because the linesman had his flag pointing into the air like a firebrand of justice. The problem was that he was wrong. The goal should have stood. And numerous “experts” out there have voiced this same opinion.

Rightfully so, Arsene Wenger has drawn attention to this play because it would have made all the difference. Scoring a goal like that in the 72nd minute to level the game would have swung momentum massively in a game that was already being dominated by the Gunners.

Who knows what could have happened from there. But the call was made, there are no replays used to verify these calls (why there isn’t is beyond me, but that’s a topic for another day) and that’s that. They lost 1-0.

That is the most deflating part of the match right there. So much excitement erupted and was promptly ripped away and for it to happen to a new man like Lacazette, that makes it even tougher.

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But all we can do now is move on. And it’s crucial that the club is able to do that, because they clearly didn’t seem to move on against Stoke City. They went completely flat the later the game went and you just felt like all hope had been sucked out of them after their biggest breakthrough was ruled out.

Mentality is always such a big talking point for the Gunners, as so many players have had their mentality doubted, so Lacazette has a climb ahead of him to put this behind him and step out against Liverpool ready to pelt the goal again. Harder than before, even.

These mental hurdles are scary things, as we have seen Gunners disappear, unable to overcome them. Alex Iwobi is one such player, who, having missed a dribbler of a shot in a crucial match against PSG last year, proceeded to admit that he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It weighed him down and you could even argue that it spoiled his season.

He seemed to be lost in his own head when he was out on the pitch.

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This goes without saying but that can’t happen to Lacazette. He has to bounce back and not let this narrative of “it should have counted” bounce around in his head.