Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette doing something no other striker does

Arsenal fans say it all the time, “Alexandre Lacazette is so much more valuable than just goal-scoring.” But what does that mean? Let me tell you.

You’ve heard it before and you will hear it again – what Alexandre Lacazette does transcends just scoring goals. Arsenal brought him on as the first big-name striker in ages, and no doubt the stigma therefore attached was “goals, goals, goals.” After all, his scoring record for Lyon in Ligue 1 was pretty reputable.

But those numbers have not been replicated since making the move to England. And yet, you’d have to find a seriously sad soul to find anyone who doesn’t rate him as one of our best players.

So how does a striker go from 20+ goals in every season in Ligue 1, to 15ish goals a season in the top tier of the Premier League, and still get counted as one of their best players? That’s easy – intangibles. But the problem with intangibles is in the word. You can’t exactly track them.

For instance, you look at Lacazette’s match against United. Five shots, none on target. No defensive numbers. Just one dribble completed and five times dispossessed. Only one chance created.

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Not a good day at the office, right? Wrong. He has the intangible. There is no stat for being a threat, or for terrorizing a defense, or for linking up play at the front. All of these are things that Lacazette does.

But he isn’t the only striker to provide those services. What he is the only striker to provide, at least in the quantity that he provides them, is assists.

No other player in the Premier League who has solely played striker this year has more assists than Lacazette’s seven. Seven. That’s a big number for a creative midfielder, as the Premier League leaders are in the 9-11 range, but for a striker, who often plays isolated up top, that seven is a testament to the intangibles – to his ball control, his innovation and his creativity.

So yeah, he doesn’t have as many goals as Aubameyang, or Kane or Aguero, but none of them have as many assists as Lacazette does either, and as I say time and time again, you can’t have the goal without the assist, so which is really more important?

The intangibles are one thing, but when you get it down to hard stats like this, it starts to shine through. Lacazette is special.