Arsenal: It takes a lot to make Alexandre Lacazette look bad

Arsenal didn’t just lose to Everton, they completely failed. And you know it’s bad when even Alexandre Lacazette looked hapless to help it.

Alexandre Lacazette‘s growth this season can be quantified by the sheer number of Arsenal fans already anointing him the player of the season. And it’s not like it’s for want of other candidates. A lot of players have impacted this year, none quite like Lacazette.

If you needed further proof, consider that he has successfully replaced Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the starting striker and confined his bromance partner to substitution duties, though some would question just how viable it is to separate them rather than keep them together.

But for as truly marvelous as Lacazette has been this year, one thing he could not do was help his team out against Everton. And not only could he not help them out, he ended up looking quite bad himself, squandering some key opportunities to get his side back into the game, or not out of it in the first place.

For as much as this attack hinges on the types of luxury players like Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil, Lacazette is, and has always been, of a different quality. When things aren’t going his way, hell drop back, get involved deeper on the pitch, all the while asserting himself on the match in other ways besides scoring goals.

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That’s what separates him from Aubameyang. Without service, Aubameyang is practically useless, as painful as that is to admit. But Lacazette? Not so much. Sure, any great striker requires good service, and Lacazette requires his fair share, but it takes something truly awful to make Lacazette look just as bad as everyone else, and this match against Everton accomplished that dubious feat.

Not only was Lacazette not as involved in the match as we’d always want him to be – due mostly in part due to a gross lack of service or cohesion in behind him – but he, like everyone else, was sluggish, seemingly unmotivated, frustrated.

Seriously, it’s been a long time since Alexandre Lacazette looked just as futile as everyone else – just as hapless. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to criticize him, but here we are, doing exactly that because while he was, in fact, isolated, he was also well below par for the course.

Things have to shape up for these next two matches, and I hope that this doesn’t start another Lacazette rut.