It was easy to understand the Arsenal supporter's frustration. The signing of Alexandre Lacazette was meant to be a watershed moment for the Gunners. Here was the genuinely world-class striker they had been waiting for. The guy to win them big games. But for one of Arsenal’s biggest games of the season, away to Manchester City, Lacazette found himself on the bench.
By the time he was introduced in the second half, the visitors to the Etihad Stadium already found themselves 2-0 down. Lacazette managed to claw one back, but the damage had been done and City scored another, just to make sure of the three points. It was a microcosm of the French striker’s season so far.
By all accounts, Wenger spent the best part of a year, maybe longer, pursuing Lacazette. He saw him, as so many did and still do, as the natural frontman the Gunners required. And yet, the Arsenal boss has shown his new signing very little trust, benching him for the big games and only introducing him to the first team gradually. On the face of things, it’s a baffling ploy.
But Wenger’s stance on Lacazette is a by-product of his position on Alexis Sanchez. The fate of the two players are intertwined, as the Gunners boss sees it, and so as things stand, you don’t get both at the same time. If Wenger opts for Sanchez, he tends to omit Lacazette. If he opts for Lacazette, it’s Sanchez who tends to sit on the bench.
This is down to Wenger’s lack of faith in Sanchez’s capacity to fulfil a disciplined role as an attacking behind the central striker. The Arsenal boss wants the Chilean to show positional awareness, sticking to his role, but more often than not when played as something of an inverted winger or a number 10, Sanchez drifts. He goes chasing the ball.
Yet Wenger still values the contribution of the Chilean and so uses him in a more advanced position. In that advanced position, there is no space for Lacazette to play alongside. It has become a choice of one or the other, and for the time being, Wenger is plumping for Sanchez.
Of course, this is in stark contrast to the assumption many made in the summer when Lacazette was signed. The Lyon striker’s arrival at the Emirates was viewed as a potential factor in the persuading of Sanchez to stay put. They were adjudged to be the perfect stylistic fit, with the Chilean the ideal supply line to Lacazette.
It hasn't quite worked out that way, though. In fact, Wenger isn’t even sure of Lacazette’s credentials over Olivier Giroud, the very player he was brought in to replace. “Giroud, Lacazette - it's a never-ending debate. I think both of them are very good players,” Wenger said recently, referencing a debate that doesn’t really exist, even among Arsenal supporters. “For me there's no difference, and each time it's very hard to decide who starts.”
This just adds to the confusion around Wenger’s current stance on Lacazette. Did the Arsenal boss simply not do his homework on how the striker would fit into his team? Why did he chase such an expensive player in the knowledge that he wouldn’t work well with Sanchez? Or did Wenger expect that Sanchez would leave the Emirates over the summer?
Whatever the real reason, it doesn’t say a lot for Wenger’s approach. In almost every way, Arsenal are a club lacking direction and that extends to the recent treatment of Lacazette. Is he the striker the Gunners needed or the one they thought they needed, but in reality didn’t? Wenger might not even have an answer.
