Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette testing Mikel Arteta’s Wenger-like tendency

Alexandre Lacazette has been busted for another balloon-gate at Arsenal. Now it’s time to find out how much Mikel Arteta takes from Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal doesn’t need anything else to collectively stress about, but Alexandre Lacazette has gone ahead and given them another. The French striker has again been busted for inhaling from balloons, just like he got busted for in the preseason with a collection of Arsenal players.

Back then, Unai Emery was in charge, and they did handle the situation internally, rolling out punishments as they saw fit. That was over and done with, no one lost much in the process, and everyone moved on.

Except for Alexandre Lacazette, apparently, as he was back at it just a couple days ago, with the club making a statement that they are taking this very seriously and will deal with Lacazette internally.

Arsenal has an Alexandre Lacazette problem… again

The difference now is who’s in charge. Mikel Arteta has proven time and again that he is most certainly a disciple of Arsene Wenger. And it makes sense why.

Arteta was the captain for years under Wenger, so he would have picked up on certain Wengerisms, and given his impetus on health and fitness, he’ll be about as displeased with this as Arsene Wenger would have been.

And if you recall, Wenger faced a situation not all that dissimilar when Wojciech Szczesny lit up a cigarette in the team dressing room. While the two situations aren’t identical, there are obvious similarities, not least of all the simple fact that Wenger didn’t want his players smoking period, even outside of the locker room.

It won’t take much of a memory jog to remember that that cigarette was the beginning of the end for Szczesny, who not long after found his way out of the club to Juventus, where he currently ranks as one of the best keepers in world football.

It’s hard to judge one or the other as more serious, but the point is that Arteta may well take a similar approach to this as Wenger did, which could be helped on if the plan was to sell Lacazette anyway. It’s not a good look for Lacazette, especially given the fact that this has not been a good season for him.

Chances are we may not know if this was a contributing factor to a potential exit or not. As mentioned, the plan was probably to sell him anyway.