Arsenal: How much more does Alexandre Lacazette have in him?

Arsene Wenger has stated that he believes there is more to come from Alexandre Lacazette. But how much does the Arsenal striker actually have in him and can Wenger get the best of it?

Nearly a year on, the £47 million, club-record addition of Alexandre Lacazette seems like an odd one. Ostensibly signed to replace Olivier Giroud as Arsenal’s lone centre-forward, the Frenchman, who was also competing with Giroud for the lone national role also, won that battle quite comfortably. Or so we thought.

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While Lacazette was able to establish himself as Arsene Wenger’s favourite when Giroud was in the picture, he seemingly hadn’t done enough to stop the club dipping their two into the transfer market again, breaking their transfer record for the second time in six months in their acquisition of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

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The focus quickly shifted to what Lacazette had done, or hadn’t done, to move Wenger and the club to make such a splash and uncharacteristic signing. Certainly, the Frenchman had not been poor in the six months prior to Aubameyang’s arrival. But he did not exactly set the world alight either. And Wenger, when asked about the future of Lacazette, was adamant that there is more to come from the Gunners’ top goalscorer:

"“There are more goals in him. First of all, he had his injury, he played for a while with his injury. Secondly, it’s a first season, you have to adapt to the intensity of the Premier League and overall it is difficult to score here because 90 percent of the time we play against teams with 10 people in the final third <…> But Alex he has shown that he has the talent and the quality to play for Arsenal Football Club.”"

Such comments beg the question, though: How much more is there actually in Lacazette? While his goal-scoring record was remarlable at Lyon, there were doubts over his all-round play, his hold-up ability in a more physical league, his qualities that extend beyond just making the net ripple. Arsenal were not signing a slam-dunk, world-class centre-forward. Maybe what they have seen in the first year or so is who Lacazette is.

There are two things that should change in the coming years. The first is health. The more that is said, the more that it is clear that Lacazette was struggling with a knee injury for some time and he was playing through it. To what extent did it affect him? For how long was he working through it?

The second is service. During his winter goal-drought, it is difficult to apportion too much of the blame of Lacazette himself. Certainly, there were issues from his own individual performances. But the service from the midfield was slow, ponderous and from distance. There was no foundation to attack from. The passing was loose and wayward. Chances were hard to come by. Lacazette, as the old saying goes, was ‘feeding off scraps’.

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If these two things change for him, then I do believe that there is more for Lacazette to achieve. Certainly, I believe that he can add to his goal tally. But the question of limits still needs to be asked. How much does he actually have in him? Arsenal, I don’t think, have reached the ceiling, but I’m not quite as convinced that it is as high as Wenger may think.