Alex Lacazette said he made a deliberate effort to wake up Arsenal’s sleepy fans after his teammates’ performance fell off a cliff following a bright start against Crystal Palace.
Entering the field of play with 23 minutes remaining, the striker was quick to gee up the home support with some theatrical hand waving only for the Gunners to fall behind in sloppy style six minutes later.
Despite the setback, the Frenchman had the last laugh on a frustrating evening at the Emirates as he crashed home a last-gasp equaliser to secure a 2-2 draw.
“I wanted to bring a bit of energy to the team,” he told Arsenal.com afterwards.
“We know when the fans in the stadium are alive and with us, it makes it hard for the opponent. Maybe because of the way we were playing at that moment, they were a bit sleepy, so I wanted to just bring some energy that I know they like, and to change the game.”
Yet to start in the Premier League this season, the 30-year-old admitted it’s been a frustrating spending so much time on the bench.
“Yes of course, it’s never easy to be on the bench, you always want to play and bring something to the team. This is what I tried to do.
He added: “It’s my first time like this. I am just waiting my time, I work every day in training for this kind of moment when I can help the team and obviously today I scored so I’m really happy.”
While failing to beat Crystal Palace at home always represents a below-par result, the draw does at least continue an unbeaten run that stretches back six games.
“It’s always better not to lose,” said the Frenchman.
“Of course we wanted the three points today but sometimes when you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose.
“We spoke about never giving up and always playing football to the last minute. When we were winning we could have done more maybe, but I don’t know why that happened, but we managed to come back at the end.”
Tonight’s draw doesn’t do much for Arsenal’s standing in the table. We head into Friday’s clash with Aston Villa sitting twelfth.
They were sleepy because we were shite.
That’s basically what he said
It was a weird performance. Smith-Rowe was the only attacking player doing any kind of pressing. He ran his socks off. The strangest moment was near the end when Martinelli got the ball near the corner and no one came to help him. He had no one to pass it to and he had nowhere to go. He was on his own with 3 or 4 CP players around him while the nearest two Arsenal players literally just stood there watching him. We all screamed ‘Help him out, help him!!!’. Seemed like a good 15/20 seconds before he finally got… Read more »
Auba was pressing for the entire game.
That’s true, he was always chasing down their keeper.
Most top coaches never get enough time to work with their teams, due to 2 matches per week.
Due to lack of Europe, every match we have 7 days to prepare. Which means this team should gel much better with every game, and play exactly as they are in training.
If this match is a representative of our training performance, then good luck to us for the rest of the season.
Artetaball put fans to sleep
Can’t fault Laca’s dedication. He may not be exactly the fit for our team, but he never stopped trying, always honoured the shirt. Hope his departure is good for both sides
When Lacazette’s signing was announced years ago, I was on a plane traveling to California. As luck would have it, I sat next to a fan from Lyon. I remember him saying that Arsenal had signed “a quality person.” He was 100% correct.
Not fit for our team? Are you serious right now? He’s a better fit for our team than Auba.
Jesus. You people. Once Laca comes on, we always start looking like we know the first thing about whatever it is we’re trying to do.
Unless there’s a replacement in the market, I really can’t understand letting him go. He currently plays the playmaker role better than our playmakers even. That’s how sad the situation is.
Couldn’t agree more, he links up better than our youngsters!
Laca was a Wengerball signing. We didn’t create much for most of his career so his numbers suffered. Think 2018-2022 lack of attacking edge.
Absolutely spot on! I’ve said this for a very long time now, we seem to perform better, the younger players seem to be better with Laca up top than Auba but for whatever reason, Arteta doesn’t fancy Laca… I’ve no idea what the guy has to do to get game time. Same with Pepe, he has a or couple good games, goes on a good run then he gets benched for the next two three four games and then Arteta says we need more consistency from Pepe?! How da hell is that gonna happen when you keep benching the geezer?… Read more »
I hope he signs a 1 year extension. Brilliant player to have come off the bench.
Not just that issue,
I believe Arteta still lacks some knowledge of selection with the kind of player he need to select in a match,
I believe Arteta needs to select another job.
As far away from the Emirates as possible.
“Sleepy Emirates crowd”…..?!!
Is he for real……?!! 🤣
Laca, you’ve been a good servant but don’t flatter yourself son; you’re now as much a busted flush as your manager.
Anything more than a couple of half decent runs in the channels and you’re gasping for air and ambling around like Kevin Campbell II.
Even my missus is lethal from one yard out.
“Sleepy.” Fucking hell. 🤣
Not sure how many matches you attend, but the crowd last night were very quiet – I remember thinking at one point how similar it was to the lockdown environment.
Yes, the team has to take some accountability for that, however it’s a two way street.
Season ticket holder since 1984. I have taken up the club’s offer to postpone this season’s ticket until next season. Glad I did; we may yet have another guy in the managerial hot seat by then.
As for the Emirates noise levels, I have no doubt that it was as quiet as the grave. My point was the same point as Matt P – namely that the crowd were probably quiet because the team were serving up such pathetic rubbish.
I don’t know about the crowd, but I was watching it at home and I caught myself nodding off a couple of times during the first half.
It’s not the fans’ job to make the players care, it should be the other way around.
Honestly, baring games against spurs… AND the big boys, the crowd always seem mellow. We need more songs and to rock the place all game long like anfield or like our away fans. All I seem to hear is the same old boring…we hate Tottenham we hate Tottenham and stand up if you hate Tottenham and even then it’s so damn monotonic its annoying! We are that much bigger than spurs they shouldn’t even matter to us never mind sing about them. Okay we hate them and we wanna sing it but we need other songs as well. Drums and… Read more »
In a perfect world, I agree- it’s the performance that should drive crowd engagement rather than the other way around. But it could be a bit more symbiotic than that. Here’s another possible explanation for waking the “Sleepy Emirates crowd.” Lacazette has been around, and knows Arsenal fans can be very demanding. He saw his teammates playing in a stupor. Rather than appeal to his teammates directly, he wanted to remind them who they were playing for. What more direct way than to appeal to the fans to demand more of the team? It’s a fine line for fans- holding… Read more »
Emirates is notoriously quiet but they respond to whats being served up.
Yeah I get that point but then the crowd need to ginger up the players. We all have off days when we need that extra motivation, that extra push so that’s where we as fans come in and be the twelfth man. No excuse, the players have to put in the work but WE THE FANS also have to do the same for our football club The Arsenal.
I feel so sorry for him, he was one of our best players last season, why on earth has he not been starting games is beyond me
Because he can’t last 90 seconds, never mind 90 minutes.
The guy is an old cart horse and we need to get rid of him in the summer.
If only the manager had felt the same.
Laca The best
This is exactly the same as when my wife comes home from a Girl’s night out. Half drunk on Champagne, and the other half drunk on tequila shots, she spends 80 minutes giving me a minute by minute recap of the whole evening, before complaining about me falling asleep, waking me up and loudly demanding fun.
Nice one Lacca, great goal and well done. But maybe have a word with your team mates about sending the crowd to sleep!
And where exactly does Arteta feature in your proposed remedy….? Straight under the radar by the look of it.
Instantly brought energy but also played people in quickly. I’ve said this before he is a pivot like Giroud a node to play others in. Why Arteta does not play him in tandem with Auba (since they have an obvious good understanding) is beyond me. For that matter, after losing Saka, second half we dipped. Why not put in Martinelli instead of Smith-Rowe left earlier, shift ESR into middle and take out Odegaard or have Odegaard play slightly deeper. Partey overwhelmed a number of times today losing the ball. Clearly missing experience like Xhaka to play with in middle of… Read more »
In hindsight Arteta should have put Laca on for Saka and kept Odegaard at number 8 (where I thought he did well). You can’t blame him for the sub though as it made sense. I did think Sambi looked lethargic all night though.
We need some leaders to get the team going when the initial intensity drops off….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZ6cT8pkrM To illustrate my point below. Good interview by Mikel Arteta Ornstein on Olivier Giroud. The difference in approach between Chelsea FC and the Arsenal. …very honest and respectful by Olivier. We want to do this build organic thing just like Arteta preferred to abide by FFP.. Its a pipe dream. We needed to work the market effieicntly last summer. I mentioned we have ZERO margin for error and entrusting this to an inexperienced Edu was a mistake again. Should have brought in Campos at Lille or Overmaars. Terribly run club and now frankly mid table quality. Maybe we will… Read more »
We finished the last two seasons of Arsene Wenger’s management in 5th and 6th. I wish people would stop with this “fans weren’t happy with 4th place” argument. The reason people were wanting him to go was because they could see where things were heading.
The fans were almost as responsible for our performances in those last years as Wenger. The Emirates was a caustic negative place for us vs our opponents. In the last 4 years Playing for Arsenal is Just like working for an ass of a boss who publicly humiliates you in front of everyone by focusing on one or two errors despite a plethora of dedication and performance. Bosses like that, fans like our fans, they are just like arrogant players ala Ronaldo. Our job is to encourage not suck the teams energy like a vortex of negativity. That team…those young… Read more »
Thank you. This whole nonsense STARTED WITH WENGER’S PLAYSTATION EXPERIMENT. End of!
watching on TV all I could think was why on earth aren’t our fans cheering every sideways and backwards pass like it’s a stoppage time winner….Strange that
If we cant beat a below avg side like cry pal at home that too without Zaha, we have a problem. All previous results were acceptable, brentford were pumped up Brighton are in good form, also both away games, but this one is not justifiable
Need to up the intensity as a team for the whole 90 minutes…..
Arsenal is missing Granit Xhaka more than fans are willing to admit.
He may not be the best there is; we can even do better than him; but at this moment, nobody else does what he does in this team.
Would our midfield be run over like that by a team like CP if we had G.X. in there?
I don’t think so.
Many people underestimate what Granit brings to the team. Sambi is only young and still adapting to the league, Partey is a big disappointment, sloppy passing and caught on the ball too often. Granit is the one who controls the midfield and drives the team.
Yeah right.
https://youtu.be/9j4uhqa7B0o
🤣
Sorry, but we had Xhaka all of last season, and we still played like this.
Palace were missing Zaha, and we barely noticed.
It’s about Arteta, not the players at his disposal.
A brief recap would answer your question. And it’s a big yes
I don’t think it’s a co-incidence that our best performance of the season featured both Xhaka and Partey.
And our best performance last year didn’t feature Xhaka. It was El Neny and Partey in midfield against United at Old Trafford
I’d argue Arsenal – Chelsea, Leicester – Arsenal, and Arsenal – Tottenham were all better performances, though the defense was great against ManU. All the other games featured Xhaka.
Monday night at the Emirates tends to be a little sleepy.
Remember, deep breaths folks, we go again Friday.
Unless it’s the NLD, a visit from one of Europe’s biggest clubs, or a hugely important match, the Emirates stands to be one of the worst atmospheres in the country. You could hear a pin drop in there most matches. A supporter’s section is sorely needed.