Last week Mikel Arteta said he was happy to hear that Alexandre Lacazette was attracting interest from several European clubs as it meant the forward was performing.
It was an interesting take as usually managers prefer to shut down speculation about players they want to keep when they are linked with other clubs. Some older managers have used a trick of gushing about a player to generate a positive spin while preparing to put them in the shop window. Arteta tends not to want to give much away.
Lacazette is 29 and has one year left on his contract — Arteta will say only that he will discuss his future at the end of the season, stopping short of saying that he wants him to stay at the club next campaign.
There were further clues about how it might pan out in the disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Slavia Prague. When the Arsenal bench yelled at Lacazette to “go” in the first half he looked across at his manager with a shrug and confusion. The negative messages that Lacazette gives off with his body language, such as when he slumps his shoulders, were spotted early by Arteta and they have worked on changing his demeanour to give off a positive vibe this season.
Worse was to come when Lacazette missed an easy chance, hitting the woodwork when a large part of the goal was open. Soon after he was slow to read a cross.
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Arsenal fans might cast their mind back to another pivotal moment for the team in Lacazette’s first season at the club in 2018. Although he headed them into the lead at home to Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semi-final first leg, he also wasted a fine Danny Welbeck cross when hitting a post from close range when they were on top. Like last night, Arsenal shot themselves in the foot when Madrid equalised late and then the Spanish club won 1-0 in the second leg.
Arsène Wenger departed as manager ten days after that and months later Arsenal began a second season without Champions League football. Unless they can turn around the tie in Prague on Thursday it will be five seasons without a place in Europe’s premier football competition. Worse still, given they are tenth in the Premier League, it could be the first time they are not in Europe since 1995-96.
Arsenal need to score against Slavia and they have struggled up front this season, managing only 40 goals in 30 league matches, fewer than ten other sides. Lacazette has 11 league goals, three short of his best tally for the club in 2017-18.
It has not been the return Arsenal would have hoped for when they paid £45.5 million to Lyons (which could rise by £7.1million) in 2017. He had agreed to move to Atletico that summer but when the Spanish club were hit with a transfer embargo, Wenger moved to sign him to try to be the reliable goalscorer that the club were missing. Wenger thought that he would dovetail with Alexis Sánchez, the club’s top goalscorer the previous season.
No sooner had Lacazette arrived than the mind games began. José Mourinho spent six months scouting him with a view to taking him to Manchester United but decided he was not lethal enough in front of goal and chose to sign Romelu Lukaku. A United source was quoted as saying that Lacazette had “no stamina, no physical impact and is not a big-game player” and also pointed out that he scored ten penalties among his 28 goals in his final season at Lyons. To a degree United have been proved right.
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Lacazette’s record in front of goal has been one stick used to beat him, while even at his selfless best, he has been underappreciated for his hard work outside the area that has brought others into play. Clearly Wenger, Unai Emery and Arteta have had their doubts too. Lacazette has started no more than 27 league matches in his four seasons and the most he can reach is 28 in this campaign.
There have been moments this season when it seemed the wheel would turn in his favour. Since the win over Chelsea on Boxing Day he has managed eight league goals and two assists. Taken in isolation it could be the type of run that persuades Arteta to persevere and give him a new deal. But Arteta has also been trying to make his team more ruthless and the lack of a clinical edge at both ends of the pitch has been costly.
Though the 19-year-old forward Folarin Balogun looks set to sign a new deal at the club, Arteta has also dropped Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, his captain and leading goalscorer in the past two seasons. With uncertainty around Aubameyang and Lacazette it seems like Arsenal might be set for a big change up front this summer.
