Smith: Why Arsenal fans are "absolutely" falling in love with this passionate ace

in , , , , , , ,

Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith has hailed Alexandre Lacazette for seeming to “genuinely care” about the club, endearing himself to the fans in the process.

The Gunners have enjoyed a fairly good season under new manager Unai Emery so far, battling for fourth as they fight for a return to the Champions League. However, very few of their players have been performing as consistently as Lacazette.

Why do Arsenal fans love Lacazette so much? Five key things to know…

  1. Alexandre Lacazette signed for Arsenal from Lyon in 2017 for a then-club record fee of £46.5m.
  2. The Frenchman scored 17 goals in 39 games in his debut season but came under some criticism.
  3. But Smith says the Frenchman is in the hearts of Arsenal fans for his commitment to the club.
  4. Lacazette has scored 11 goals in 30 games for Arsenal this season across all competitions.
  5. The Frenchman was recently nominated for the Premier League January Player of the Month award.

This comes after Lacazette was criticised for a first season at the Gunners in which he scored 17 goals but showed signs of failing to adapt to the English game.

But Smith believes Lacazette has since played himself into the hearts of Arsenal fans with both his goals and commitment to the club.

“Arsenal fans absolutely love a prolific centre-forward, especially when he has a close attachment to the club,” he told the Evening Standard.

“And I think that’s true just now of Alexandre Lacazette, a character who seems to genuinely care for the fortunes of his employer.

“Yes, plenty passionately kiss the badge before angling for a move. Plenty go through the motions to garner support. But Lacazette does most of his talking with clever feet forcefully backed up by fierce determination.

“You could see that in the way he surged infield against Cardiff to rifle home the goal that effectively sealed the result. The Frenchman wouldn’t be denied. This was all about pace, power and a hammer blow of a shot.

“His superb take against Chelsea involved a lot more skill in shifting the ball swiftly in a tight space. But again, the goalkeeper was beaten by a sweet piledriver. Not many hit the ball as hard as Lacazette.

“If nothing else, such outstanding form gives Arsenal half a chance against Manchester City on Sunday.”

Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel: sqwk.at/Squawka-Sub

Aubameyang hails partnership with Lacazette

Part of the reason for Lacazette’s successes this season has been his growing partnership with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Whether the pair play as strike partners or with one out wide, Lacazette and Aubameyang have combined well to put opposing defences to the sword.

The pair have combined to score 29 goals for Arsenal in all competitions this season, 18 of which have come with both players on the pitch.

And, speaking after Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Chelsea in January, in which Lacazette scored, Aubameyang said of their understanding: “Sincerely, I hope so because when you have a striker like Alex near to you then he’s really good to play with. I hope we will play more games together.

“Since I joined Arsenal he was here and he came to me and talked to me and now we are going well, we have the same vision about football and I love him! He’s a great guy.

“It is nice between us, it’s not a bad rivalry, we are friends. When one is going well the other is happy and that’s the most important thing, to do well.”

The post Why Arsenal fans have fallen in love with Lacazette, according to a former No.9 appeared first on Squawka News.



From Squawka NewsSquawka News http://bit.ly/2D5qbyO
Labels: , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)