Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette and the well-deserved tantrum

Alexandre Lacazette is the latest Arsenal player to throw a tantrum when being subbed, but this one was of a different sort, and that must be noted.

Unai Emery, for just the second time, let Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette start side by side for Arsenal and this time, it worked out so much better than it had previously. Lacazette, as he so often does, made everyone around him look better, mainly Aubameyang, who took his added freedom and ran with it. Literally.

Thus, when Lacazette was taken off in the 78th minute, the Frenchman was less than pleased. He isn’t the first player to throw a tantrum at being subbed. Alexis did it so famously on a number of occasions and Mesut Ozil’s against Crystal Palace is still being pointed at as a critical moment.

But Lacazette’s was different. For a couple of reasons. For one, Lacazette’s was deserved. He should have been taken off. He had been playing well all match, he was (and certainly still is) dying for a goal and, at the time, we were down a goal, and Lacazette was one of our chief threats.

Because Lacazette is always one of our chief threats. This isn’t the first time he has been subbed off, obviously, but in previous instances, he has been lackluster, or underwhelming. Not against Burnley.

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That isn’t the only reason that this tantrum was different, however. Unlike Alexis, or Ozil, Lacazette did go to Emery, he did accept commendations for a good match from the manager, and then he proceed to fume on the bench. It actually looked like he was fuming at first because there was nowhere to sit, but wherever it began, it obviously escalated.

But he didn’t disrespect the club or the manager in the process. He just fumed. He was angry that he wasn’t trusted to see the game home when he had earned the right to do just that. If I’m being totally honest, he was much better than Ozil on the day, but I realize that ten minutes later, Ozil literally strolled through the Burnley defense to set up that third goal, so enough about that.

The point is, the media will probably blow this out of proportion, as they so often do. The media will spin it as discontentment and an Ozil-esque falling out, but that isn’t the case here.

This was just some good old-fashioned frustration. And some well-earned frustration at that.