Arsenal: Yes, Alexandre Lacazette is the Player of the Season

Alexandre Lacazette scored another wonderful goal in Monday’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United. The striker is Arsenal’s Player of the Season, and it’s not all that close.

I often pay little attention to individual awards in a team sport. The relentless debates about PFA Player of the Seasons, Ballon D’ors, and whether Lionel Messi or Cristian Ronaldo is better degrades the true value of the sport: it is a team game, and only with a good collective will any club be successful.

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That said, these awards do provide structure for edifying conversation and discussion. It was last season’s PFA Player of the Year that led to a discussion over the relative values of Kevin de Bruyne, an all-encompassing midfielder, to the incessant scoring Mohamed Salah, for instance. And so, as a result, it is sometimes enjoyable and insightful to discuss these kinds of awards.

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This brings me to Arsenal’s Player of the Season award. Last year, almost out of default because there weren’t really any other serious options, Aaron Ramsey was named the Player of the Season. In the end, he probably deserved it. But that was more out of a lack of alternatives. No Arsenal player really played well.

But this year, the picture is very different indeed. And it is why discussing potential winners for the Player of the Season award is useful. It allows us to frame opinions regardings myriad players. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is chasing the Premier League Golden Boot. Sokratis and Lucas Torreira have been revelations as new signings. Matteo Guendouzi is a star, Bernd Leno has impressed, while Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin have markedly stepped up their performance level.

But of all of the excellent seasons that Arsenal players have enjoyed this year, there is one — and only one — that is deserving of the Player of the Season award: Alexandre Lacazette.

Lacazette has been sensational this year. He notched his 13th Premier League goal with a lovely lobbed finish in Monday’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United, has another seven assists to go along with those 13 league goals, and of all strikers in the Premier League to have played more than 800 minutes, only Sergio Aguero has a better goals plus assists per 90 minutes ratio. But while the statistics are sensational, they only tell half of the story.

Lacazette’s best play comes away from the goal. He is incessant in his pressing without the ball, his touch is excellent, he is deceptively strong with his back to the goal, and he creates openings for others thanks to the attention that he demands from defenders. Lacazette is more than just a goalscorer. He is a complete centre-forward, much more than his mate, Aubameyang.

And he displayed this rounded skill set throughout the entire campaign. That is why he deserves the Player of the Season award, however much I am not the biggest fan of them.