When Alexandre Lacazette was fouled by Fred on Sunday, he picked himself up and the first thing he did was to tell Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to take the penalty.
The Gabon international had failed from the spot the previous weekend when the Gunners had the chance to win the North London derby at Wembley, and was clearly affected by it in his subsequent performance away at Rennes.
Knowing how much a goal would mean to his mate, the French international insisted Aubameyang take it, and this time he made no mistake to put Arsenal 2-0 up and on their way to three crucial points.
The former Borussia Dortmund man explained what had been said to him, and paid tribute to a friendship which has – so far this season – seen the duo score 34 goals and notch up 16 assists between them.
“This friendship is really really strong,” he said. “Straight after he fell down, he looked for me and said, ‘You shoot. You have to be focused and you shoot’.
“It’s a great partnership and, of course, the coach decides who plays and whether we play together or not. And we have to accept that, that’s normal. But I think we are both really focused on playing for the team and giving our best.
“We don’t care about who is shooting the penalty, the most important thing is to score. After Laca got the penalty and looked at me, I felt good and I was ready to score because we are having a good period with the team and everybody said that I would score again.
“Now we feel that we have everything in our hands. We know that it will be tough but we want to do something. We want to get back into the Champions League. We are really hungry.”
Arsenal face Rennes on Thursday night in the Europa League second-leg without Lacazette who is suspended, so hopefully the boost in confidence this gave Aubameyang will see him drive the team into the next round.
And I hope this wonderful thing continues for a very long time..! Two lethal strikers, respecting each other, complimenting each other, helping each other , and having no complaints. Beautiful that is!
Does every arsenal fan only have a one match memory? Ever feel like the reason our fan base appears disjointed and fragmented is because we can go from hate to love and back to hate in the course of three games?
I’m all for enjoying the good results but this is the same player who missed a decisive peno at sp*rs and disappeared at Rennes. But one penalty later and we are drooling over this ‘special relationship’?
This boom or bust mentality needs to stop. It’s bad for the club.
How dare anyone have a bad game!!
Start with yourself, you’re gonna crucify him for missing a penalty, and having a bad game…like yea no top player as ever done that before….shame on you Aubameyang for being human, and then when something positive happens you want to bring negativity into it. If your a true Arsenal support the team through thick and thin and stop whining about everything.
Not everyone in the fan base goes from boom to bust. If you watch sport you will know that there are highs and lows and you take them in your stride. What happened on Sunday is why I love this club. Auba gave Laca confidence when he came back from injury last season and Laca returned the favour. People need to try and see the bigger picture as supporters definitely and avoid knee jerk reactions which I actually think you are guilty of in this instance.
yes, it’s much better if we all refuse to see good things when they happen.
Finally, sarcasm I can understand on first read.
Up there with Radford and Kennedy – yes, I am that old!
I consider myself a bit of an old fashioned chap, but…. Awww ?
Friendship goals… Love to see the impact on the pitch
Together they’ll take us back to the UCL
Great partnership… Two wonderful strikers with different styles.
That hungerness in the players can reach Arsenal into the champions league for next season.
Come on you HUNGRY GUNNERS
COYG??
Hungerness? Is that a Scottish seaside town?
I love a good bromance as much as the next but guys, can we just have the best penalty taker taking the penalties? ?
I agree but remember Henry, Pires and Lauren used to share around the pens when we were winning everything in sight, so there’s something to be said for it.
Good point but those 3 (along with Ashley & Vieira & Freddie?) were unbelievable penalty takers, Auba less so. All for it at 3, 4 nil just maybe not at 1 against a rival. Trivial criticism though of course.
I think the situation is a little more nuanced than that. On a basic level yes, but in a situation where another player needs a lift, and the best taker is banned for an important european game, I think that there is a strong argument for this.
And though it might have seemed risky, no better way to exorcise that demon than by stuffing one past De Gea in a clutch match with Manure.
Loving the bro-mance! Onwards and Upwards Gents!
Quick question, absolutely no doubting the quality of the strike force of Henry & Bergkamp but was their bond/friendship as strong as this?
Also is there another strike force (partnership) that have a joined celebration to rival theirs?
Can’t think of any besides Ronaldo & Dybala imitating each other when they score..
Arsene said for years, that we need leaders across the team; I think it’s safe to say that we are finally having that. Laca has come leaps and bounds this season and Is showing a lot of leadership qualities, xhaka is doing the same in mid field, kos and papa at the back. Responsibilities being shared by many shoulders.
Fingers crossed the injury gods cast their gaze elsewhere for the remainder of the season, we could really ride this wave to good things for the season and beyond
Also, the pic blogs used for today’s Arseblog about Lacazette & Aubameyang looks like a meme waiting to happen lol
‘Get yourself a girl that looks at you the way Lacazette looks at Aubameyang’ LOL
There’s something about Lacazette, he genuinely feels like one of us. He gets what it means wearing that cannon on the chest. My favourite Arsenal player!
Classy
If you all cast your minds back to about this time last year, Lacazette was out of form, without a goal in about five or six games. Aubameyang was on a hot streak and when Arsenal won a spot kick, he had a chance to seal his hat trick after scoring twice in a fixture at home (can’t remember against who). But rather than be selfish and knowing his mate needed a goal, he gave the ball to Lacazette who banged it in. It was also noteworthy because Aubameyang was cup tied for the Europa League and he wanted Lacazette… Read more »
I remember very well, it was against Stoke. Aubameyang passed up on a hat trick just so Lacazette could score and boost his confidence
Laca was hiding a knee injury during the off form period, no?
I’m in love with them. Nuff said.
ahhhh bad show guys, this thread was, like laca and auba finding each other in the box and letting each other take pens , a thread of perfect harmony until one person, one person!, disliked a comment by Matt, now watch disharmony reign and the dislikes pour in! we’ll end up at war.
It’s a great thing to watch. Two guys who could be rivals (to the detriment of the club) backing each other when it really matters.
The focused introvert Laca and the smiley outgoing Auba – best buddies like a you tube Cat and Canary video.
Laca is no introvert he is basically the class clown pranking everyone during training
This team has a hunger and a belief that we haven’t seen in a long time. I’m hoping we get top 4, if so it really would be a miracle pulled off from Emery who has been nothing but fantastic so far.
Top 3 above Spurts.
And let’s try and add a European trophy.
It would be a great start to his tenure.
Imagine if we had a player with the qualify of Alexis Sanchez with them………
I just want to add that if Laca had taken the penalty and scored he would have scored in 6 consecutive home games for the club…I really admire the selflessness.
Great camaraderie in the squad
This is something not able to be quatified by stats but soft Power that can be so important fir a team.
Just want to mention that absolutely awesome bit of skill by Lacazette on sunday when he took about three United players out of the game in one turn. It was a sort of Cruyff turn thing. It came to nothing ultimately as I think he ran into more traffic but that was great to see. He really has looked stronger, more confident and ready for a fight. Also for Aubameyang to take that penalty and to hit it in exactly the same spot as the last one took some balls. I would like to see him smashing it into the… Read more »
He’s really impressed me this season with the nuance to his play but also the strength competing for the balls. One criticism of Auba is he ducks out of challenges for the ball. Considering he is much taller than Laca, he is far less effective holding the ball. That piece of skill by Laca was encouraging as with the drive into the box to win us the penalty. We don’t have enough players able to take on one on one so it is fantastic to see Laca is adding this to his repertoire. At 27yrs, he is just coming into… Read more »
There’s chemistry between the two.
But there is also a good level of understanding developing in other areas.
Example Iwobi and Kolasinac have struck up fantastic intuitive understanding.
Also Torreira and Granit seem to dove tail well covering fir each others weakness enhancing their respective strengths.
Ramsey supridingly was also synced with Granit as with Kolasinac likely a product of better maturity. All the pity we are losing him at this stage.
Hope we can capitalise on these relationships on pitch and put Rennes truly to the sword.
I hope that Laca grows his hair out like Auba.
I don’t care if they’re bumming each other in the showers if it makes them play better then I’m also for it. A bit of man love never hurt anyone.