Arsenal: Sokratis’ faith in Alexandre Lacazette utterly justified

Sokratis has backed ‘goal machine’ Alexandre Lacazette to find his scoring form. While the Arsenal striker’s goal drought is a little concerning, his talent is undeniable, and if he continues to perform as he has done, the goals will come.

After being named Arsenal’s Player of the Season, I am sure Alexandre Lacazette was hoping for a more impactful follow-up campaign to arguably the best individual season of his career.

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Just five Premier League goals, none of which have come away from home, a month on the sidelines with an ankle injury that he was obviously playing through beforehand, and being intermittently dropped so that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can play through the middle, especially under Freddie Ljungberg, Lacazette has not the greatest of individual seasons.

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At the heart of his struggles has been his goalscoring. He has now not scored in more than a month — his last goal was December 5th — and is clearly struggling for confidence in front of goal. He has missed several decent opportunities in recent weeks, including a late rebound in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

But with Aubameyang now set to miss the next three matches through suspension, an Aubameyang who has scored 48% of Arsenal’s league goals this season, the Gunners will need Lacazette to step up to the plate. And according to Sokratis, his teammates have every faith that he will:

"He’s a machine, a goal machine. He’s a very good player. In some games, from the outside, you can’t see what he can do. Or maybe he is a little bit struggling. But we have see also how is the game and which guy he has behind him. I think he is a very good player <…> I think Laca is coming better and better. He’s very important, a massively important player for us. Altogether we have to improve, to step up and to show that the year is not finished and that we have to fight for this.”"

There has been growing criticism for Lacazette this season. Fans seemingly have a short memory. They also struggle to forgive a player for poor form, as if they should always be performing at the peak of their powers, and fail to look beyond basic numbers like goals scored. Lacazette is playing at a far higher level than you would think if you searched his name into Twitter.

And given the standard of his play, the positions he is getting himself into, and the support of Mikel Arteta, Sokratis and his teammates, it is simply a matter of time until the goals flow. As they say, ‘it is better to get chances and miss them than to not get chances at all’.

Lacazette will never be a replacement for Aubameyang. He is a very different type of centre-forward. He will never be as prolific, lacks the speed and goal-poaching nous, and does not have that same knack for knowing where the chance will come. But he can score goals, he is a capable finisher, and his all-around play is phenomenal.

Things may not seem like they are going well for Arsenal’s reigning Player of the Season, but while the net may not ripple for him, his work is not going unnoticed. And if he keeps working hard, the rewards will come, just as Sokratis says.