Sheffield United have been a revelation this season, and despite losing their last 2 (away at Man City and Liverpool) they were unbeaten in their previous nine and will be keen to regain their Top Six aspirations.
And of course we all know Chelsea’s battling qualities, although they are young and can be inconsistent.
For these two games, we now desperately need Lacazette to return to his former deadly form or we will, quite frankly, become entrenched in the bottom half of the table.
Our defence has improved a bit under Arteta, but other than Aubameyang we are still struggling to score goals. One man who thinks that Lacazette can step up to the plate is our big Greek defender Sokratis, who told Arsenal.com: “He’s a machine, a goal machine,”
“He’s a very good player. In some games, from the outside, you can’t see what he can do. Or maybe he is a little bit struggling. But we have see also how is the game and which guy he has behind him.
“I think he is a very good player, we are with him every time, he is with us and we will show all together in the future a lot of things.
“I think Laca is coming better and better. He’s very important, a massively important player for us. Altogether we have to improve, to step up and to show that the year is not finished and that we have to fight for this.”
We sincerely hope our “goal machine” can get a confidence boosting goal against the Blades, or we will go to Stamford Bridge with a main striker low on belief and without an away goal since February.
These two games are going to be massive for Arteta’s impetus and could define the rest of our season. Let’s prove our new coach has made a difference and can survive without our star player….
Admin Pat