Arsenal do sometimes finish a football match without having hit the back of the net, or like in our Premier League away game at Stoke this season finish with a zero to our name despite hitting the back of the net, but you would usually bet on the Gunners to score at least once.
The man whose goal against the Potters was harshly ruled offside has not let it bother him, though, and after another two goals in our Monday night win over West Brom, Alexandre Lacazette is starting to look the part at his new club. He played down the importance of his own goals and refused to get too worked up about his own importance, which I like, as he clearly sees that scoring goals is his job and it would only be notable if he was failing to do so.
What I liked even more about his post match comments reports in The Mirror this week was the way he attached more importance to the improved organisation of the Arsenal side in recent games, especially on the defensive side of things.
The France international forward said, “It is no big deal. It is not the kind of record I am looking for. I am not especially looking for records. I am looking for stability with the team and this evening was better and better.
“We are unbeaten in September. We have reorganised ourselves defensively and everyone is working together and that is how you can see the difference.
“Everything is not perfect, but against West Brom we had possession, we did not concede. We scored. Even if I think we can do better, it is good already.
“We knew that hard work would pay off and that is what we are doing. Let’s not get over-excited and carry on.”
Hardly surprising, I suppose, to hear that Lacazette wants the team not to concede, because that takes pressure off the attacking players. Concede once and they have to find the net twice for Arsenal to win, while clean sheets help every player to relax and play with confidence and freedom.
Has the new man got just the right attitude, as well as the talent, to help Arsenal succeed?
Bob.
Bench xhaka . Defence starts from the front an that punk has been a Liability.
This is the heir apparent to our midfield an he has been a huge disappointment
In fact him an mustafi that’s 70 million pounds of talent ….that haven’t performed
The fact we struggle against mid table teams tells u where we are at …adjust your expectations kids
The defence looks more stable now and what a masterstroke from Wenger moving Monreal back there.
I would however prefer playing Kos between Mustaphi and Monreal rather than him playing on the right hand side. His more calm, experienced and intelligent than Mustaphi.
Glad the midfielders are putting in some work too, not sure whether it has to do with Ozil been out of the team.
Xhaka must have had a long talking to on his red cards, now the poor lad plays with a hand break on and ends up making mistakes. He needs lessons from Sead on how to be aggressive but in a clever and positive way.
Yea, that’s a right attitude from Lacazette it shows how intelligent he is…the team should come first and if we can stay solid at the back, it will really make a difference because we will score at least a goal…
@Redmau5
I used to think Mustafi is shaky, but when I considered our performance with and without him this season I think he is needed there….
In the games he has started, we conceded just once while the ones he didn’t play, we conceded like 7 goals..
He frustrated Morata and had him in his pocket, what happened the following week? Morata hat trick…
Sometimes, he looks rash in his tackle but our defence is better with him…..
Maybe Xhaka has lost a bit of confidence, he seems to misplace a lot of passes this days…I still think its a partnership issue and he doesn’t come across as a pure DMF…he is like a deep lying playmaker IMO….
It could be the system or the partnership but he is a good player….
His a poor mans Xavi Alonso.
His a player expected to win the ball and quickly kick start the attack.
To be fair Alonso played his best football next to Khedira; Vidal / Lahm or Martinez; Busquets (SP) at NT level. Only worry about Xhaka is his a bit too slow for my liking and in the PL that will always play against him. He needs a stronger and athletic block to play next to him.
he stands to be among the happiest and most fortunate sportsman in the prem all he needs to do is remain fit as one thing is certain its that arsenal will always provide chances upon chances. just a matter of getting others equally as important to our project on side and of course approaching mr carlo ancelotti to ask if he’d care to step in to replace wenger as a matter of urgency. it would be an appoint such as his that would ensure the teams future is in capable hands.
l still believe we’re due an apology from wenger for the debacle witnessed at the transfer window. currently what the club stands for is buying couple players and then destroying our expectation by failing to complement the players with the quality they need. nobody here should allow themselves to be fooled by our micro-successes in one or two games. we gonna have to attract more quality signings, at CM and CB for sure.
waal2waal, I agree with your Lacazette comments and even more so with your anti Wenger comments. We have had in my opinion , only ONE top CB and NO top CDM, since Sol Campbell and Viera and then Gilberto left. Only KOS has been a proven success and Wenger has completly ignored those two gaping holes in key position for almost a decade now, which is sackable. Xhaka is clearly too one paced, relatively immobile , rash and extremely careless in even short passing when under pressure. And you are always under pressure in the middle of the park. Xhaka is a bad buy and should but won’t(Wenger being Wenger and unable to ever admit a mistake) be moved on in Jan or next summer. Until Wenger is gone, he, himself, has long term proved that we will NEVER fill those holes and thus not win the Prem or CL
we brought lacazette into an adverse situation and a questionable environment. we should all be pleased he eventually came rather that than he went to athletico. but no-one has convince me that steps will be taken to further consolidate the side with “quality signings”. we’re only a loss away from reverting to square one, so we need to ring in changes – they’ll only happen if a ‘new’ manager is appointed of the calibre mentioned to help us compete with guadiola and mourinho. our rivals don’t ever have to settle for ifs, buts and maybes – high time arsenal focus was on competing to be the best.
Mustafi and Xhaka are indeed the main weaknesses in this Arsenal side.West Brom should have been two up on Sunday due to mistakes by Mustafi including the stonewall penalty incident.As for Xhaka he is a poor man,s Matic .His lack of pace is evident for all fans to see and around the penalty area he is a liability .Mr Wenger will not however bench them because of their price tags as to do so would be an admission of his own failure in the transfer market.From what I have seen of the duo so far AFC will find it difficult to sell them on without incurring a substantial loss.
I’m I the only fan that thinks Mustafi is a good player?
He is when he stays on his feet but he does sell himself and does not stay on his feet enough which is one of the golden rules for defenders. We were lucky to get away with his erroragainst WBA.
Who cares if they make a substantial loss on Xhaka and Mustafi. They let over £1020,000,000 GBP by keeping Alexis and Ozil last summer so clearly the cash is not the be all and end all off it . Take whatever you can get for Mustafi and Xhaka replace Mustafi with VVD or Kalidou Koulibaly both would be perfect and replace Xhaka with Idrissa Gueye/ Leon Goretzka or Jean Michell Seri and again 2 off either off them would be perfect and we are ready to challenge. Could you imagine a back 3 off
VVD……..Kos……. Koulibaly. That’s formidable .
Midfield pairing off
Goretzka……..Gueye. Or
Seri ……….Gueye
Would be unbelievable I reckon .
I would be happy if this happened.
I don’t think it’s right to claim Wenger has ignored the problem at CB. Over the past few years he has bought Chambers, Gabriel, Holding and Mustafi. Mustafi is a decent CB and since Liverpool the defence has done ok. The main issue at the club is whether they have the funds to spend big and if they do why isn’t Wenger spending it? They only raised the bid for Lemar on the last day of the window when they had the funds for the Ox and City were willing to pay 60m for Sanchez. This suggests to me that the club don’t have the cash to spend without raising the money from sales first. Next Jan and next summer will see even less money available.
Do you guys not remember how formidable Mustafi and Kos where at the start of last season ??? Mustafi has had some troubles granted but I’m fully behind him. Xhaka on the other hand is a liability however dropping Ozil and playing 3 cm with Coq as the holding one and boom problem solved !!!