Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette, the criminally underrated striker

Following the North London Derby on Saturday, I once again feel compelled to express why I think Alexandre Lacazette is Arsenal’s most valuable player.

I know the under/overrated debates can become a little tedious after a while, but following the North London Derby on Sunday, I once again feel compelled to express why I think Alexandre Lacazette is Arsenal’s most valuable player.

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Since Arsene Wenger bought the striker in from Lyon for, at the time, a club-record fee of £47m, Lacazette has scored 38 goals. This includes crucial strikes against Manchester United, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City; all that is forgetting the three goals in the Europa League quarter-finals and four goals in the semi-finals of the same competition. He is the very definition of a big-game player!

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And his game is not limited to just being a goalscorer. The Frenchmen has profound hold-up play and is consistently able to retain possession in attacking areas. He also has an incredible work rate, maintaining pressure on the opposition’s defence throughout any match.

And best of all, he isn’t selfish. At the moment, it appears to be almost impossible to find an unselfish striker, who holds the team’s interests at heart, but Arsenal’s number nine always seems to play the right pass to set up so many goals, principally for last season’s golden boot winner, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Lacazette ended up bagging eight league assists last season.

And in the derby, he was no different, a convincing performance from start to finish. Lacazette was relentless, searching for opportunities whilst the rest of the team dwelled. And his goal was outstanding. When he collected the ball, he had no right to even find a way to shoot, let alone score. And somehow, he made it look easy.

No one would deny that the goal changed the game, changed Unai Emery’s team talk at half-time and changed the spirit of both sets of players going into the break. It was both a sign of his quality on the ball and his penchant for a timely moment of inspiration.

In the second half, the whole team deserves credit as they dominated Spurs. Arsenal kept building up pressure until the well-deserved and long-coming equaliser was scored thanks to a calm finish from Aubameyang, converting a sublime chipped ball from Matteo Guendozi. But special mention should be given to Lacazette for his second-half performance, his industry and defensive work rate especially impact to quell Spurs counter-attacks on several occasions.

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Towards the end of the match, he requested to be substituted. Fortunately, it was just cramp. That is a great relief because his performance on Sunday was as good as his best throughout the past two years. Once again, where other players haven’t, he turned up when it counts, and I fear his contribution to the team sometimes goes overlooked.

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