Arsenal: For Alexandre Lacazette, goals the least important

Alexandre Lacazette is a goalscorer. And a very good one at that. But he brings so much more to the Arsenal team than just sticking the ball in the back of the net.

Arsenal might have the best goalscoring duo in the Premier League. Only Manchester City and Liverpool have two players that have combined for more goals than the Gunners, and in their cases, at least one of the pair is a winger, not a centre-forward.

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacaztte are both brilliant goalscorers. Their movement, their shooting ability, the intelligence and sharpness of their play all comprise a striker who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net. But in the case of Lacazette especially, goals are only a part of what he provides the team.

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After Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Southampton in which Lacazette scored the opening goal with an inventive flick from a misfired Henrikh Mkhitaryan shot, Lucas Torreira said this about his French striking teammate:

"“In terms of Laca, personally, I think we all know how important he is for the team. He does a lot of work for us both in attack and defence. I think we saw today and in previous games the importance that he has for the team.”"

Torreira recognises everything that Lacazette brings to the table and does not value him solely because of his goals, however important they may be.

I was especially impressed with Lacazette’s performance on Sunday because of what he offered to the team in the lone centre-forward role, one that can become extremely isolating at times. He was dogged, brutish, battling for every loose ball, winning foul after foul, not once being dispossessed when dribbling.

These are elements that Aubameyang sometimes lacks. Because he often likes to play on the peripheries of the match, only ever looking for the ball in and around the penalty area, almost trying to lose himself amid the chaos only to pop up right at the end of an attacking move and slot the ball into the goal, he can allow himself to become isolated and Arsenal, as a result, struggle to progress the play into advanced areas.

This role of a centre-forward is perhaps even more important than the goals that they score. Harry Kane’s goal tally is phenomenal, but what makes him so crucial to Spurs’ play is that he is a brilliant hold-up player also. It is why Romelu Lukaku, who has a similarly outstanding goal record throughout his career, is currently unused at Manchester United.

And this is where Lacazette truly shines. His goals are important, yes. Critical, in fact. And he would not be the same player if he was not regularly rippling the net. But it is his overall play that makes him such a brilliant, all-round centre-forward.