Arsenal boss Unai Emery has said that he wanted to sign Alexandre Lacazette when he was at PSG. Lacazette rose to prominence when he was playing for Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyon. His last three Ligue 1 seasons saw him score 76 goals in 97 matches. Lacazette joined Arsenal last summer on an initial fee of £45 million which was a club record at the time.
Since his arrival, Lacazette has scored 22 goals in 49 matches for Arsenal. This season, he has scored 4 Premier League goals in 8 matches so far. The 27-year old Frenchman will most likely make his 50th appearance for Arsenal today when they take on Leicester City.
When Unai Emery was at PSG, he coached the likes of Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe. However, the Spaniard refused to compare any of the forwards. He said, “They are different players, it is very difficult to compare. But for example, when I arrived at PSG we were thinking to sign Lacazette.
His quality and his characteristics also we liked at PSG. Also, the people who were working there, they said to us, ‘This player has the quality to play for PSG’ when we were there. He was at Lyon and it wasn’t easy to have the conversation or to sign a player from Lyon or from PSG for Lyon. He was an option for us.”
Emery said that despite doing well lately, Lacazette can still better his performances. He said, “We are speaking together with Laca. For him, last year, his first year in the Premier League, it was a different league than the French league also and the position also, the rhythm also, not the mentality because he has a very good mentality and he has very good chances usually to score. He is very efficient.
But he needs to continue his adaptation for us, for the Premier League, for the rhythm. This year we are looking at him one step more in this level.
We are very happy but my message to him is: ‘Every day, don’t stop’. Don’t stop in training, don’t stop in matches, carry on to find his best performance. Not even just in matches but in each minute of the 90 minutes and he is doing that.”
Arsenal will hope to register their 10th successive win today when they take on Leicester City. More importantly, the win will take them to 4th place in the Premier League table.
