Arsenal: When in doubt, Alexandre Lacazette it out

Things looked bad at the start for Arsenal against Valencia, but when the doubt started creeping in, Alexandre Lacazette started bursting out.

When Valencia scored the first of what could have been several goals early in that match, you could feel a collective deflation all around the Arsenal sphere. We had all talked about how the Gunners couldn’t let their awful Premier League form seep into their one salvation – the Europa League.

But as it sat 1-0, the big question on my mind, and I’m sure on many others, was who was going to do something about this before it tremendously collapsed like a flaming paper house.

We’ve seen it before, a game that starts bad and gets worse, with no one stepping up to take charge of the match. But we didn’t see it here. Because our shoo-in for player of the season stepped up and made it clear that he was not about to let his team fall against another inferior opponent.

Lacazette was everything after the Gunners survived a nervy 15 minutes. He sprang Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and had the wherewithal to follow it all the way to it’s natural conclusion – a goal.

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When Granit Xhaka had time on the ball, Lacazette didn’t wait for something to happen, his run instigated it and he just trusted in Xhaka’s pinpoint accuracy to find him, which he did, and there was much rejoicing.

Lacazette had countless opportunities to extend the lead later on and while he may have scuffed them, the point still remains that he was the guy instigating all of this. He was the guy reading the game, getting in the right places to give us the chances we needed to feel good about the position we were in.

He even played a big part in the crucial third goal that gives the Gunners a nice cushion going into Spain. 2-1 and 3-1 are two completely different scenarios, and it was Lacazette that instigated the difference.

All in all, we know that this is what Lacazette can do, we know that he is our best player, it’s just a matter of keeping enough going on around him to allow this influence to truly flourish.

So, if nothing else, the goal of this attack should be to keep Lacazette active and involved. As long as he is, there are going to be goals and the Gunners are going to be much better off.