Arsenal: Sorry Alexandre Lacazette, that’s not how things work

Alexandre Lacazette thinks that this international break can help Arsenal get back on track. I hate to break this to him, but that’s not how it works.

I’m really not trying to pile on Alexandre Lacazette, I swear. Far too many fans are taking to blaming him for Arsenal‘s loss to Leicester City because of his two missed chances, but that’s foolishness. He should be making those, sure, but there are bigger issues in play here.

Lacazette himself spoke of this bigger issues, the confidence issues, after the match, saying what we all already know. That the club lacks confidence. His solution? The international break. Which will apparently give them a chance to reboot and refocus.

Only that’s never how it works, is it?

Because I’m suddenly a pessimist, let’s look back at the last few international breaks to see if Lacazette’s hypothesis holds water (spoiler alert, it doesn’t).

Lsat time we headed into international break was after squeaking out a 1-0 win over Bournemouth on October 6th. At this point in the season, we were in decent standing in the table, but we all knew that something was off. The club was not performing well and it was obvious that these ground-out results weren’t sustainable.

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The international break was supposed to be a time to regroup and bring back a bunch of injured players to the team, particularly the defense.

When we came back, we lost 1-0 to Sheffield United after Emery made zero changes and left the club exactly as it was before the break.

The previous international break came following a 2-2 draw with Spurs. Arsenal went down 2-0 early and fought their way back beautifully to score a point in an emotionally driven North London Derby. Many thought this would be a turning point, as we’d just lost to Liverpool 3-1 and looked on target to lose to Spurs before the club showed a fight that’s now foreign to us and clawed back into the match.

We went on break, came back, and blew a 2-0 lead against Watford to draw 2-2. Feeble.

These international breaks are always regarded with such optimism and end up turning into just another span of wasted time. Why Lacazette thinks this one will be any different is a plea for help that distracts from the matter at hand.

That said, it is Southampton waiting on the other end of the break, so we better see a result on the comeback.