Mikel Arteta told the press today that his Arsenal side could be missing up to four players this weekend, with Alexandre Lacazette’s availability unconfirmed at present.
The Gunners were without all of Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney last weekend, and there is no positive news on any of that trio. In fact the manager claimed that the Ghanaian’s injury could be worse than initially expected and his participation again this season is now in doubt, although the player is said to be working hard to make a return.
Lacazette could well be set to miss this weekend also, although the manager couldn’t confirm the reasoning behind the club captain’s absence from training, and Arteta seemed upbeat on his chances of being in line to feature at St. Mary’s on Saturday.
The boss told Arsenal Media in his pre-match conference: “Obviously there are private reasons that I cannot comment on, but I have no other team news to give other than the guys we have discussed.
“We will see if he’s available. It’s a good possibility that that’s the case.”
It would be interesting to see who gets the nod to lead the line should Laca not make it in time, with Eddie Nketiah a serious option given he is the only natural striker remaining in the senior squad, although some would no doubt like to see Gabriel Martinelli given the chance to feature up top.
It wouldn’t be a shock if Lacazette didn’t start even if he did make himself available, having missed some of the key training sessions ahead of the matchup, and he could well make a bigger impact coming in off the bench regardless, especially if he can fire up the fans as we go in search of the win.
How much of a blow would it be to lose Laca this weekend on top of the absences we already have?
Patrick
I will like for once to see arsenal without lacazet since auba left. Let us play without him I want to check something
To my mind it will be a massive relief if LACA, as now seems most likely, misses the SAINTS game.
Of late, with LACA in , it has ben akin to playing with only ten men , so ineffective and uninterested does he look. IMO there is something far more fundamentally wrong with him.
To me, he looks mentally AND physically very unfit indeed and the so called “private reasons” for his absence from training are a little suspicious, IMO.
He was caught sniffing nitric oxide not long ago and IMO has not appeared fully match fit for quite some time. A professional player of just thirty should not be so regularly shagged out well before the end of games , but HE IS!
SOMETHING SMELLS, TO MY WAY OF THINKING.
Lacazatte just defends for the opponets let martineli nketiah saka lead in a 4 3 3 formation
I’ll also love to see Martineli Nketiah Saka in front three.
I would be happy to see Laca out. He is more of a burden up there in front than anything else
Laca is probably off on a short trip to visit his mom. He will probably be joining Barcelona too.
We should have sold him two years ago for over 40M to Roma, but the gaffer couldn’t pull the trigger out of fear of upsetting his mate, Auba. Bad decisions coming back to bite us.
Again.