Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette has to decide what happens next

Arsenal fans are perhaps placing a little too much blame on Alexandre Lacazette, but from his point of view, he is at a decision point in his North London career.

Arsenal’s loss to Tottenham was infuriating, not because of the deficit we lost by, but because of the lack of fight this club showed to get back into it. I feel like I’ve said that before. It was a match that was begging for a devastating equalizer to rob Spurs of their three points earned, but the rare chances that we had went missing.

For an hour the club labored away, trying to create a chance like they were digging for gold in the desert. They just couldn’t find the space, the link-up play, anything.

On came Alexandre Lacazette with half an hour to toy with. Arsene Wenger put so much faith in him that he relegated Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out wide. That’s a discussion for another article, though.

Lacazette did all the preliminary work right. His runs were superb and he put himself in positions where he could change the game. Both times, the chances went missing. One, a volley, was thumped over the net and the other, a through ball, eeked wide of the far post.

I won’t hold it over his head too much that he missed his chances. It happens. Of course we expect better, but the reality is that players aren’t perfect.

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The question now, though, is what happens next. And that all falls on Lacazette to make a decision.

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It’s no secret that things haven’t gone his way. One goal in his last thirteen matches is unacceptable by his standards. It has landed him on the bench playing behind one of the best strikers in Europe. That is where the decision point comes in.

He has a choice. Either suck up the misfortune and the bad luck and do something about it or sulk and spiral downwards until the summer and pray that you can spring a jailbreak.

Nobody owes anyone anything in this game. I am completely on his side that he shouldn’t have been shoved to the bench as he has been, but it’s done now, we can’t go back. You can only make the most of what you’re given and what you’ve earned.

This is a major turning point in his career because you have to imagine that there are some intense demons in his head right now. His confidence is shot, he has no guaranteed starting spot anymore. It’s far from the paradise he would have wanted when he left Lyon.

But he can make it his paradise again by bettering himself. His past few games, when he was still starting regularly, he had gotten sloppy. He wasn’t holding his line, he wasn’t finishing well, he wasn’t involved in the build-up play as much as he had been earlier in the year.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Tottenham

You could say that his trajectory was a bit negative. At some point it’s up to you as a player to turn that back around and after the howler against Spurs, there is an added pertinence.