Arsenal and Alexandre Lacazette: Harry Kane would have scored

Alexandre Lacazette came on in Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Spurs. It did not go well. In fact, he missed the crucial chance of the game to snatch a point. It is a chance that Harry Kane would have scored.

Arsenal did not deserve a draw in Saturday’s 1-0 thrashing at the hands of an excellent Tottenham Hotspur. It would be easy to blame the missed chances late in the game — I will touch on one, and its ramifications, extensively in this piece. But they were not why Spurs won. There were far more detrimental and worrying shortcomings that led to this humiliation.

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However, Arsenal had a chance to snatch a draw. It is a chance that Spurs took last week against Liverpool. It is a chance that Manchester City have taken time and time again this season. It is a chance that the Gunners themselves have exploited. This time, though, they couldn’t.

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I am, of course, referring to Alexandre Lacazette and his agonisingly sliding low shot. Let me paint the picture. Alex Iwobi had just slid a lovely through pass into the right channel for the French striker to scamper onto. After a misjudgement by Davinson Sanchez allowed Lacazette to duck inside and stride clear, he was, despite a tightening angle, one-on-one with an onrushing Hugo Lloris.

Lacazette chose to take the shot on with his right foot. It was, in all honesty, his only option given the speed at which he was running and the time in which he had to make contact with the ball. That did not help. The angle was acute, Lloris was steaming towards him, and Sanchez was hankering on his back. The pressure was on. He couldn’t deliver.

Now, this chance was not as easy as many would perhaps have you believe. It was not gilt-edged, as some have somewhat cruelly suggested. But it was one that a £47 million, former club-record, goal-getter signing should score.

And scoring crucial goals and crucial times is something that Lacazette has recognised is a task that he must fulfil. Speaking in August, the much-maligned and somewhat wasteful centre-forward said, ‘I’m going to score goals at key times in the games where the team may have struggled in previous years.’

There will be few more crucial times than this. A spark was needed. Time was running out. This was the one chance that every commentator seems to predict. This was Lacazette’s opportunity to prove his worth. This is exactly what Olivier Giroud has done for 18 months. This was the time to deliver.

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Lacazette missed and Arsenal lost. For a striker of his price, calibre and reputation, expectations were far greater. He did not meet them. He missed. Harry Kane would’ve scored.