Arsenal Need Lacazette for Top Four
After his crucial misses against Liverpool and Leiceister City, the calls have begun for Lacazette to be discarded. For many fans, he’s an impostor playing in a spot given by God to Aubameyang in a ceremony moderated by Arsene Wenger and Thierry Henry. He has no right to be there, toiling day and night and missing one on ones.
The preferred lineup of most Arsenal fans would be Saka, Aubameyang and Pepe with Lacazette on the bench. That is an obvious lineup but it does not answer a question that I think is important for our Champions League chances this season. Does it have enough goals in it?
Aubameyang is clearly a 20+ goal per season striker. Saka is having only his first full season as a regular in the side. This is Nicolas Pepe’s second season. I do not think Pepe and Saka have enough goals between them for a top 4 push. Lacazette’s 15 goals are essential to our hopes. Without Lacazette, his goals would have to come from somewhere else. Willian has never broken the double digit barrier. Martinelli and Nketiah are both too young to be reliable throughout the season. We have no other goalscorer in the squad.
All the shouts to bin Lacazette are assuming that there are enough goals in the midfield and the rest of the attack. If there is one thing we know about our midfield, it is that they’re not going to be scoring goals aplenty.
Maybe after this season we can go for a reliable and younger goalscorer but right now, Lacazette needs to play both to keep us in contention for Top 4 and to keep his market value above water.
Agboola Israel