Mikel Arteta has been praising Alexandre Lacazette ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Watford.
Alexandre Lacazette joined Arsenal from Lyon back in 2017.
The Frenchman has since featured on 195 occasions for the Gunners, scoring 70 and assisting 34 along the way.
During his time at the club, the now 30-year-old has proven himself to be a very useful asset for every manager he has worked under.
Yet, despite still being a key cog in Mikel Arteta’s side, Lacazette is expected to depart the Emirates this summer.
This comes with Lacazette currently out of contract in June, and reports last year claiming that the Gunners will not offer the striker a new deal.
Mikel Arteta on Alexandre Lacazette
When doing so, Arteta highlighted a key quality of the Frenchman, stating that Lacazette makes the people around him better:
“Laca has a really important quality, which is that he makes the people around him better”, Arteta said.
“He understands the game really well, he’s a really intelligent player and his work rate is phenomenal.”
So, though Lacazette has scored just three league goals this term, it is easy to see why Arteta continues to trust the Frenchman to be the north Londoners’ main no.9.
Lacazette, at least for Arsenal, has never really been a 20+ goals-a-season striker, but his work ethic and how he fits into Arteta’s system is what makes him such a reliable option.
Of course, with so few goals coming from the striker, Arsenal must look to the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to provide the goals. But that has worked out fairly well so far for them this term as they charge towards the top-four.
