The stay of Alexandre Lacazette at Arsenal is one of the most talked about situation going on among the Gooners right now.
Even after being Arsenal’s player of the season in 2018/19 season, Lacazette showed a graph of decline in this season and has been subject to criticism in the last few months.
The 28-year-old is still the best we’ve got and in order to acknowledge his importance for the club, I would like to shed some lights on why he should remain at London.
Lacazette of this season feels much like Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka of last season and his evident decline of form has led to inappropriate amount of hatred among the fans. As the days progressed of 2019/20 season, Lacazette’s form took a toll coupled with a persistent rise in hatred from Arsenal fans.
However, there are various reasons that will help me prove Lacazette is useful and should stay. Lacazette’s stats are not as bad from last season either. While he averaged an involvement of 100 minute a goal in the last season, his tally has seen a slight increase with 129 minutes per goal involvement.
Despite this decline, Lacazette is still holding better stats that two of Premier League’s most admired strikers. While Harry Kane has a goal involvement every 137 minutes, Roberto Firmino sits at 161 minutes.
Although the comparison is not fair on any grounds, I just need to suggest that Lacazette is not as poor as he seems. Lacazette is still the same player that joined from Lyon for a record-breaking fee of £46.5 million.
At his career at Lyon he was involved in 172 in 275 games with a goal involvement every 118 minutes. And during his last 45 games he was involved in 42 goals for his club showing everyone why he can be trusted.
The Frenchman has not been able to put up the same performance as last year because of a lack of proper number 10. The striker needs a playmaker who sets up the ball for him in front of the goal; something which even Ozil could not carry on well. Lacazette needs a proper forward formation with his wingers and midfielders working cohesively.
And with the chance of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang increasing, Lacazette may be required to stay and play the role of a goal scorer. Therefore, it will be essential for Arsenal to let the Frenchman stay at London and provide him with a proper recipe of midfielders.
