Arsenal fans are thrilled with their new signing Alexandre Lacazette. More than the North London club breaking the bank to get him, the excitement is about how complete the striker makes Arsenal’s attack. The Frenchman comes on the back of a solid reputation of being a prolific goal scorer, who can use small spaces magnificently and has tremendous pace.
For Arsenal, and more essentially Mesut Ozil, who was so effective at Real Madrid for having brilliant strikers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema ahead of him, Lacazette could be a dream arrival. In the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott, Lucas Perez, Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud, Arsenal finally boasts of an attack, which can be terrorising for the toughest defensive side.
However, Arsene Wenger would be foolish to think that the Frenchman would be enough to deliver him his long-awaited title. While it might have been a possibility two seasons back when the top sides were reeling under transition stages and Leicester City took away the cream, Premier League next season is expected to be anything but easy.
The preparations of Manchester City, Everton, Manchester United, Liverpool and more, clearly indicate that they will stop at nothing. While Arsenal might have a decent squad, which managed to end the season strongly with an FA Cup victory over Chelsea, they are nowhere near sufficient. And the fact that the club is pushing to get Thomas Lemar from Ligue 1 side AS Monaco, says it all.
While many have linked the big arrivals with the possible departure of Arsenal’s star player Alexis Sanchez, it has to be taken into consideration that Arsenal’s Europa League fixtures have made life extremely difficult for them. The hectic midweek fixtures could prove to be immensely draining on the first team who would now play more league matches on Sunday.
Arsene Wenger, who has previously guided the side to Europa League (then UEFA Cup) final, knows well the necessity of two sets of squads that can keep the consistency on both the levels. Arsenal would still need reinforcements in the midfield as well as on the right defensive flank, and that would mean some sure departures with possibilities of Jack Wilshere, Carl Jenkinson, Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs all the more likely.
Lacazette is definitely a great buy, but he remains an effective weapon at best, whose inefficacy on his debut season would mean Wenger falling back to his less effective but proven option of Olivier Giroud.
