LACAZETTE OFF THE MARK
ARSENE WENGER hailed club-record signing Alexandre Lacazette after he took just 15 minutes to open his Arsenal account in Australia. The French striker, a £52million arrival from Lyon, came off the bench to score the second goal in a 2-0 victory over A-League champions Sydney FC. Lacazette sidefooted home a low cross from Alex Iwobi late on in front of more than 80,000 at ANZ Stadium. Per Mertesacker had given the visitors an early lead by volleying in a deflected Mesut Ozil corner. ‘It’s important that he gets that off his shoulders,’ Wenger said of his new signing. ‘You expect a striker to score. You could see he was happy.’ The Gunners dominated the first match of their pre-season trip, but found home keeper Andrew redmayne in fine form. The former Arsenal trialist saved a second-half Danny Welbeck penalty as Wenger’s team, which included youngsters reiss Nelson and Joe Willock, wasted numerous chances. Wenger, however, saw the positives in his young players. ‘It’s very promising,’ he said. ‘In england people are worried but when you look at results of youth teams over the summer and players you saw tonight the future is much more positive than people expect.’ Meanwhile, Barcelona have halted their pursuit of hector Bellerin after yesterday signing Benfica right back Nelson Semedo instead. Arsenal had written Barcelona a letter to warn them off their right back, who left the Spanish club for north London when he was 16.