Alexandre Lacazette’s recent comments about leaving the club in order to play Champions League football have led to sections of the Arsenal fanbase calling for Alexandre Lacazette to be isolated from Mikel Arteta’s squad for the rest of the season. However, this would seriously hamper Arsenal’s top-four push as Lacazette is our best-attacking option.
Arteta can take inspiration from Thomas Tuchel on how he reintegrated Romelu Lukaku back into his team. The Belgian also released a controversial interview, which was similar to Lacazette midway through the season.
The Gunners are extremely short in the strikers' department, and removing Lacazette as an option will all but confirm Arsenal’s failure to make the top four. Eddie Nketiah hasn’t got the quality to lead a side to a Champions League place, so it is important that Arteta finds a solution similar to how Tuchel did.
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Lacazette’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season, as he has been unable to agree to a new deal with Arsenal. The whole campaign has led to a lot of speculation surrounding his future and whether Arteta should offer him a new contract.
Now, the 30-year-old has claimed that he is in talks with a number of clubs, indicating that leaving the Gunners appears likely as things stand. Speaking to Canal Plus, he said: “I am in discussions with a lot of clubs. I am open."
“It’s a bit more complicated", Lacazette replied when asked If he would return to his former club even if they drop out of Europe. “I want to play in Europe, it’s been a long time since I played in the Champions League, I’m missing it. It’s a little more complicated, nothing is impossible in life, but it’s a little more complicated.”
This led to outrage amongst the Arsenal fanbase, with some of the supporters insisting that Arteta never includes him in another matchday squad. However, this is not the answer, as he is crucial to Arsenal’s Champions League hopes which are currently hanging on the fringes.
Lukaku had criticised Tuchel’s system at Chelsea and suggested he would like to move back to his former club Inter Milan after feeling unsettled. This resulted in the Belgian striker being left out of Chelsea’s crucial game against Liverpool, and it seemed like his future with The Blues had the writing on the wall and he was set to leave.
However, this would not be the case as relations improved between the manager and the player. This also led to Lukaku issuing a public apology which certainly looked to be spearheaded and demanded by Tuchel.
Arteta can look to follow this route in order to find a solution with Lacazette, as the Frenchman is crucial to the Gunners despite his poor scoring record. He is a major influence in the dressing room and adds experience to what is a very young team.
If Arsenal had good options other than Lacazette in the squad, then it would have made sense to banish him temporarily from the first team, but with such little time in the season left, and the possibility of Champions League football at the end of the season, Lacazette could prove pivotal in Arsenal achieving a place in elite European competition next season.
