Arsenal: Emery must give Alexandre Lacazette what Deschamps won’t

Didier Deschamps has yet again denied Alexandre Lacazette a French international call-up, but that just amplifies what Unai Emery needs to provide at Arsenal.

Coming off of a year where he won the Arsenal player of the season, despite his strike mate winning the Golden Boot, Alexandre Lacazette had to be feeling pretty good about himself. Whether or not he was mulling over a potential French National call-up is beyond my amateur levels of telepathy, but when he yet again didn’t get a call this past week, I have to imagine it was disconcerting.

It’s reached the point where it’s more a joke than anything else. This man may well be the best French striker in the world, yet he continues to get beat out by Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud.

Now, to show that I’m not biased, I do understand why Didier Deschamps is being so bull-headed. Lacazette plays similar to Griezmann. That’s been his argument since the first time he unfairly denied Lacazette a chance, but it’s at the point now where he is too good to keep getting left out.

Which is where Unai Emery comes into it.

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Never before can I think of a more deserving player who can’t get himself an opportunity to champion his national colors, so it’s a bit of a unique situation for the Gunners to find themselves in, but Emery can make the most of it by making it clear and obvious how important Lacazette is to his team, despite the fact that Deschamps sees him as not good enough to rep the blue national kits.

And that should be easy, seeing as how he’s out best player. Give him free reign to that starting striker role, no matter what happens. This is Lacazette’s stage, since he is being so cruelly denied another and as long as that is the case, we can have no questions about whether or not we are getting the absolute most from Lacazette.

This isn’t like Mesut Ozil, who would always outperform his club play with his international play. Lacazette has one goal in his scopes and it is always while wearing a red shirt.

It does suck for Lacazette, to be so spurned, but that just means he has to take the chances Unai Emery provides him even more than he already does. Not for Deschamps, but for Emery and the Gooners out there who love and appreciate him.