Arsenal vs Everton: Alexandre Lacazette tethered by poor decisions

Arsenal has been strictly limiting of Alexandre Lacazette and it is massively flustering. At some point, we have to let him do his thing.

Arsenal spent a record-amount of money bringing Alexandre Lacazette to the club after three years of pursuing the guy. But rather than dwell on the negativity of that situation, let’s talk about the negativity of another situation.

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When you spend that kind of money on a guy, you are asking a lot from him and he must be prepared to answer that call. Lacazette has proven that he is ready to answer, ability-wise, as of now, it has not been asked of him.

Every single match, Lacazette has been removed before he could see out the full 90, and it’s not like he’s being pulled in the 88th minute, he’s getting pulled in the 60th-70th minute. And people are starting to talk about it.

He’s being pulled from matches where he’s scored two, matches where the team needs a goal, no matter the match, you can rely on Lacazette being evicted before he can see it through to the final whistle. He’s always replaced by Olivier Giroud.

My word for this handling was “archaic.” Arsene Wenger isn’t doing this to be tactical. That has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with appeasing Giroud. Don’t get me wrong, Giroud absolutely deserves it, but there has to be other ways – tactical ways – of getting Giroud game time.

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For instance, this idea that everyone, save Wenger, loves – playing them both. Arsene Wenger found so much joy utilizing two strikers in the time of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, but ever since then, he has looked at the idea of two strikers like he looks at the idea of smoking a cigarette.

At some point, you have to allow Lacazette to be a part of this team. To know that he has more than an hour to prove that he should be out there. Let him have a chance to be a hero. Let him have a chance to score that crucial winning goal that sends chills down everyone’s spine.

Robbing him of that chance has to make him feel somewhat unwanted, or not trusted, neither of which you want a new signing, let alone a record signing, feeling like.

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Invest in Lacazette like you invested in his transfer. Let him do more. There is no point to hold back someone who is supposed to be such a big part of not just the here and now, but the future.