Arsenal: In case you forgot how important Alexandre Lacazette is

Arsenal’s attack was yet again the problem against Bournemouth. Just in case you forgot how important Alexandre Lacazette is, you probably remember now.

I’m not someone who’s going to complain about how we played against Bournemouth. Arsenal won, I’m happy. That’s how it should be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pick out the places where there’s room for obvious improvement, and that’s why I have to talk about Alexandre Lacazette.

I wrote yesterday about how we’ve been keeping our heads above water over the past few weeks. It may seem futile, unsustainable and/or lucky, and it probably is. But at the end of the day, we’re getting a lot healthier. This defense is getting back their full compliment of options and the attack will soon have the elite Lacazette back in the fold.

It’s amazing what one missing player can do to an attack. The Gunners’ attack is what makes them stand out from the crowd. It’s the main thing that keeps them afloat. But these past few matches have been nothing of the sort. They’ve really struggled with creating chances and taking those chances.

But mostly with creating chances. Dani Ceballos led the team with three against Bournemouth, which is a positive showing. Bukayo Saka had two. Also good.

The rest of the team only managed five, and that’s including the subs.

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I could sit here and lecture about creating chances all day. In fact, I often do. But the strikers can help out the creators with a bit more movement of their own. And while Aubameyang is damn good at doing just that, Alexandre Lacazette is better.

Aubameyang, isolated, is never going to be as good as he is with Lacazette at his side. The way they flow together, compliment each other, feed off of each other. We don’t get that from Nicolas Pepe. We aren’t getting it from anyone else.

Lacazette moves defenders, he requires them to move, which allows for more movement from his fellow attackers, which in turn makes it easier for creators to get more chances on the board, and with more chances, Aubameyang has more opportunity to score. But even when he doesn’t, Lacazette’s presence essentially doubles the goal-scoring likelihood, which is something we so clearly need at this point.

So in case you needed any kind of reminder that Lacazette is the most important player on the team, you probably don’t need it anymore. He’ll be back soon!