Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has claimed that Alexandre Lacazette’s injury could have been affecting his form for some time, following discovery of swelling on his knee.
The French striker started the season well despite the manager opting to limit his minutes as he adapted to the Premier League, but lost form from around December.
His drop in form appeared to have led to his club to delve into the transfer market, investing a new club record fee into buying Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund, but we have since come across swelling on Lacazette’s knee, and he is expected to be ruled out for up to five weeks.
Wenger has now claimed that the swelling could have been there for some time, and that could have been a telling factor in his struggles in recent months.
“He got a surprising swell of the knee after the game against Tottenham and needed surgery, very quick surgery, and he will be out for the next four or five weeks,” Wenger said. “It’s a massive blow for us, but we have to find a solution.
“Nobody could predict that, but football is as well to do with unpredicted things and it’s always a good opportunity to find someone who steps in and does well.
“Lacazette is down, but I think he recently must’ve felt something in his knee, I don’t know. Maybe as well that’s an explanation why he was not scoring as many goals as he’s used to.”
Is Wenger clutching at straws by claiming Lacazette’s injury could have been the problem? Could we potentially have two top strikers when he is fit?
Pat J
sorry off topic…. Mertesacker was in the photos of the team training this morning…. oh surely not ?
Maybe. But even if he is fit, he usually does not have enough support from Arsenal creative midfielders anyway (Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey). Unlike Firmino, it seems as if he was instructed to stay in the front and he became isolated because of that.
Thus Wenger bought a taller striker to win the long balls from Cech’s distributions. If Arsenal cannot maintain their composure when they are pressurized heavily, they could lose against the big boys in the Europa League (Dortmund, Atletico, etc).
If Arsenal want one of our players to recieve balls distributed by Cech, they should put him in the stands!
There no dout that we will lose against the big boy’s, are defence is a shambles. Until we replace both CB’s, keeper and buy DM, then we are doomed. Arsenal need to spend at least 250million on just those positions, then replace Walcott, Alexis and bring in a replacement for oli. If we did that, then I think we would be unstoppable, better than man c, but that’s never going to happen while arsene is in charge. This season really has a feel of pending disaster, who are we trying to kid, we are a embarrassing ourselves this year, so far. The player need to take a good long look at themselves, get back in the ring and start throwing punches as if there lives depend on it. I’m an amputee and have had to fight like he’ll fire, I want to see some real desire from my club and players, show me you can do it, fight,, fight, fight, at the moment ,watching Arsenal play make me feel like giving up on my battle. Make me proud , make me want to follow suit, if you player can do it, so can other like me, that are having real battles in life. Come on Arsenal, stop being such yellow bellies and fight for, not just us fans, but for your own pride, let’s start kicking some arse
Trebor, your personal issues put sport into perspective. Keep your chin up and be an inspiration to others.
Letting Giroud leave is a mistake, although I understand it was because of Auba. I think Arsenal is facing a spiritual problem. Nothing goes our way, Europa the only hope now is turning up side down. Well, maybe this sad situation ll bring d best out of our other players even wen Lacca was fit his goal has dried up
I don’t like the “nothing goes our way” excuse, because clearly, Arsenal, but mostly Wenger, create our own problems in the first place. I used to think we were unlucky with certain goals/decisions/injuries, but it’s a recurring theme under Wenger’s management. How can anything be deemed ‘unlucky’ when it occurs with such consistency?
We won’t miss Giroud because we never played to his strengths anyway, and we couldn’t realistically keep a third choice striker on around 150k p/w anyway. Aubameyang is a huge upgrade, and a much needed one.
Welbek , this is ur time to shine
Why has the fact that Lacazette may have been carrying an injury for some time not been looked at by the Arsenal coaching staff until the damage has been done? Surely it might have occurred to someone on the training staff to investigate this possibility weeks ago .The fact that he was being substituted on a regular basis should have set alarm bells ringing but of course AW will never admit to this.
I don’t believe his form was down to injury, I believe it was a mixture of lacking confidence and him being new to his surroundings. Wenger said it was due to Aubemayang’s arrival and now he’s supposedly saying it’s an injury. Lacazette would have known if he was injured, it’s not something that escapes your attention. Maybe if Lacazette had been aloud to play full 90 minute games he’d be fitter in a quicker space of time, maybe he’d have taken the strain to his knee.
I don’t buy all this stuff about Aubameyang’s arrival being the reason for Lacazette’s drop in form. Any decent player has to accept that there is competition for places in a healthy team that wants to do well (Apart from Ramsey lol) Besides, Lacazette’s form dropped well before Aubameyang arrived.
Laca started well, so perhaps there was a subtle injury affecting him that flared-up more recently. Or maybe he just had a dip in form following his honeymoon-period at his new club, and now is affected by an injury, but will do well once that is all behind him. I hope so, because I reckon Laca is a good player and a valuable asset to AFC.
Yossarian, totally agree.