Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette’s foes outnumber his weapons

Arsenal found a true, bonafide striker in Alexandre Lacazette. The fact that he hasn’t begun his conquest yet isn’t completely his fault though.

Arsenal nation had been crying out for a companion striker for Olivier Giroud for half a decade and Alexandre Lacazette was identified. After three years of courtship, he was finally acquired and the messiah was welcomed to North London.

Half way into the season, it hasn’t been gangbusters. Lacazette has eight goals (this is written before Crystal Palace), which is a modest tally. However, it is 10 whole goals behind his North London counterpart, Harry Kane, the frontrunner for the golden boot.

It isn’t realistic to expect that kind of return from Lacazette this soon, but it’s completely reasonable that he could be expecting more than that. The problem is that, of all the weapons he has, he has as many foes stomping out the embers of those weapons.

For instance, a goal scorer needs minutes to score goals. Lacazette is a goal scorer. Other than two instances, he has been withdrawn – or not started – in every game. Arsene Wenger calls it protection, I call it ridiculousness.

Make no mistake about it, Alexandre Lacazette has all the capabilities in the world to be a top, Premier League striker who competes for golden boots.

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If the foe against him was simply Premier League defenses, no problem. Lacazette would take some time getting to know opposing defenses and, in the end, shred them like he has numerous times before.

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But stack up against him Wenger’s “protection” and add in the fact that his team mates can’t figure out their own problems, and you have another foe that he can’t overcome on his own.

Lacazette is a runner. He makes intelligent runs off the ball and expects his team mates to find him and pick him out. Reasonable, by all means.

But when you have a rotating cast of characters, some of whom are out of position, don’t want to be there or simply aren’t on the same wavelength as Lacazette yet. That is a foe that can be felled with time, no worries. The biggest problem with that is just getting a set cast around him.

Nabil Fekir would help with that endeavor.

Then there is the matter of the fluctuating form of Arsenal in general. They can’t get a grip on their own ambition or capabilities, which leaves Lacazette in a constant state of limbo, unsure of what his team mates can feed him.

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Lacazette isn’t as dependent on service as Olivier Giroud, but every striker has a degree of dependency and when that supply line is a crapshoot, so too will be the results.