Unai Emery says he’s pleased with Alex Lacazette’s efficiency in front of goal but believes the Frenchman, who should make his 50th appearance for Arsenal on Monday against Leicester, will continue to improve as he further adapts to the rigours of the Premier League.
The 27-year-old striker saw his first season in England interrupted by a knee injury that required surgery but he’s bounced back well and already has 22 goals to his name.
The Gunners snared Lacazette from Lyon in the summer of 2017 for a then club-record fee of £46.5 million. It has now been revealed that Emery was a rival suitor before Paris Saint Germain turned their attention to Kylian Mbappe; a player that Arsene Wenger had also attempted to sign.
“They are different players, it is very difficult to compare,” Emery said when asked to compare Mbappe and Lacazette. “But for example, when I arrived at PSG we were thinking to sign Lacazette.
“His quality and his characteristics also we liked at PSG. Also, the people who were working there, they said to us, ‘This player has the quality to play for PSG’ when we were there.
“He was at Lyon and it wasn’t easy to have the conversation or to sign a player from Lyon or from PSG for Lyon. He was an option for us.”
Having started the season on the bench, Lacazette has fully earned his right to lead the attack for Emery in recent weeks. Now the Spaniard expects even more from the attacker.
“We are speaking together with Laca,” added Emery.
“For him, last year, his first year in the Premier League, it was a different league than the French league also and the position also, the rhythm also, not the mentality because he has a very good mentality and he has very good chances usually to score. He is very efficient.
“But he needs to continue his adaptation for us, for the Premier League, for the rhythm. This year we are looking at him one step more in this level.
“We are very happy but my message to him is: ‘Every day, don’t stop’.
“Don’t stop in training, don’t stop in matches, carry on to find his best performance. Not even just in matches but in each minute of the 90 minutes and he is doing that.”
I remember last year on here A few folk telling us lacazette was not in the same class as Lukaku And Morata. I wouldn’t swap fhim for either of them.
Well I agree whole heartedly, he’s better than both of them. Stats don’t lie.
I’ll happily hold my hand up, when we moved for Aubameyang I thought Lacazette was finished, thought originally he looked a very good finisher but not really an upgrade on Giroud, but since he returned from his injury his forms been great, and he’s playing with real power and purpose, his reaction to us buying competition and missing out for France has been different class.
Hoping Ozil is the next player to shove my words back down my throat, because we could certainly do with him finding some form, consistency and hunger from somewhere
They were right. Those lames are not in the same class as our Lacazette
They got the classes the wrong way around
Sorry to hijack, Arsene to AC Milan. I reckon.
Because Arsene’s sole purpose in life is to piss off Ivan Gazidis?
??????
Or Real Madrid
Ivan G. is at AC milan, chances of Wenger going there are slim.
Should score 30 goals this season, in all competitions
I said at the start of the season I thought him and Auba would get 50+ goals and assists between them. They haven’t been doing too bad so far!
Keep on moving, Laca,don’t stop.
Don’t mean to hype him up too much or anything, but if he keeps his head down and works hard, he could definitely be the next Eddie Nketiah.
That boy needs to go to the bundesliga. He’s too good for our youth teams.
It’s still a mystery how the French national team manager rates OG above Laca but as long as it works out to the advantage of Arsenal, I am cool with that.
I’m staggered Laca isn’t in the France squad given there isn’t a squad limit like in a tournament and they tend to start with all three of their central striker options in Giroud, Griezmann and Mbappe.
That being said, I can see why Oli gets in the side ahead of Laca purely as Deschaps at times uses OG as a target man/battering ram for Greizmann to feed off of.
He looked so unhappy during his first season with us but look at him now as he’s becoming the player we knew he was. It’s great to see him living up to his potential.
On another note, this fucking interlull is finally over tomorrow. Yay!
he was operated upon. Jeez.