We pick out one player from Europe's biggest games and analyse their performance. Today, we focus on Alexandre Lacazette after his debut for Arsenal against Chelsea in the Community Shield.
Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata missed their penalties in the shootout as Arsenal won Sunday’s Community Shield at Wembley.
After a 1-1 tie at the end of 90 minutes, the ‘ABBA’ penalty shootout made its England football debut with the Gunners winning 4-1.
Courtois took Chelsea’s second kick but skied his effort before Morata put his wide. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored before Olivier Giroud netted the decisive strike.
Alexandre Lacazette made his competitive debut for Arsenal, starting the game.
Here, we focus on the Frenchman’s performance.
Basic stats
Lacazette
Goals – 0
Assists – 0
Shots – 1
Dribbles – 0
Passes – 18
Key passes – 0
Pass Accuracy – 94.4%
Touches – 25
Dispossessed – 1
Effectiveness
The striker looked lively in the opening 25 minutes when Arsenal were on top, having started the better of the two sides. He showed good mobility in that front three, flanked by Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi.
Lacazette’s movement inside the box nearly saw him get on the end of a pass across the face of the goal early on before he went on to strike the post with a fine effort in the 23rd minute.
However, he failed to make any notable contributions beyond that and was subbed off in the 66th minute. Apart from one counter-attacking move, the same that saw him hit the upright, he struggled to get involved in the game.
That was also his only shot while he failed to complete a single dribble or play a key pass. He wasn’t a threat in the air, lacked the physicality or tenacity to be a handful for centre-backs and went through most of his debut unnoticed.
Key moments
7th min: Alex Iwobi goes on a fine run down the left flank, gets to the byline and drills a pass across the six-yard-box. Lacazette holds his run and then darts in at the near post expertly but the ball takes a deflection off Courtois and passes just behind the striker.
23rd min: Arsenal go close with a swift counter-attack with Lacazette at the heart of it. Welbeck then does well on the left before playing in the Frenchman who makes a yard for himself but his curling effort strikes the far post.
61st min: A good spell of possession for Arsenal sees Elneny play the ball to Lacazette in front of goal. It looked like a promising position but the striker’s touch let him down and knocks it out of play before the flag was raised for offside anyway.
Our verdict
There were a few good signs of things to come but he’ll need to make more of an impact when the team is up against it. Once Chelsea came into the game strongly, Lacazette went missing.
He’s not the kind of striker who drops deep and creates but he’ll need to have a lot more bite about him to flourish in the Premier League. The effort that hit the post was a standout moment though, not just because it was a fine strike but also because of his involvement in the break aw
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STOPNice write up.
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