GUNNERS LAC FIRE POWER
<M<IP B@:B# <M<IP >F8C# <M<IP >8D<# Wenger admits striker Alex has lost his touch
ARSENE WENGER confessed Alexandre Lacazette is lacking confidence because his place is under threat.
The French striker fluffed two great late chances to snatch Arsenal a totally undeserved point.
And Wenger admitted the ex-Lyon hitman, who scored for fun in France, was probably feeling low following the Gunners’ decision to bring in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund last month.
Aubameyang, at around £56m, cost about £10m more than Lacazette and started ahead of him against Tottenham at Wembley.
Difficult
Wenger was in despair after substitute Lacazette’s second miss and the Arsenal manager had his head in his hands after the forward failed to hit the target when he had only Hugo Lloris to beat. “Maybe the confidence is not at the highest because he has seen a competitor coming in for him,” said Wenger, whose own self-belief must surely be waning with his team’s top-four chances growing ever slimmer. Wenger added: “One-against-one with the keeper, he is a good goalscorer. “He has gone through difficult periods before. He works hard in training, works on his finishing. “I don’t know what happened. Did he not touch the ball well? It can happen. It is a fraction of a second.” After eight goals in his first 15 appearances for the Gunners, Lacazette has managed just one in the last 13. Last season at Lyon he had 20 goals by this stage and went on to bag 36 goals for the French outfit.
Wenger admitted: “When you transfer numbers from one league to another, it is not necessarily transferable, especially in the top six. That’s what top Premier League is about.”
Worryingly for Arsenal, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and his men are not even bothering to gloat any more about being top dogs in north London.
Pochettino said: “Arsenal is our sworn enemy and I know what it means, the derby. But we don’t care if Arsenal are behind us, or where they are. It is more important to build something special at the club with these players.”
The excellent Mousa Dembele echoed his words, saying: “To be honest, I’m not busy with this question, ‘Who is the best club in north London?’.
“I know that, at the moment, we perform well, we feel strong and we’re not scared to play any team, be it Arsenal or whichever team it is.
“We have a lot of confidence but we just want to win something.”
Harry Kane’s 49th-minute header won this derby, but, in truth, he could have scored three or four goals and Spurs might have won by five or six.
Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin said: “In the first half we were just waiting for things to happen, we didn’t have the initiative to go forward, to keep the ball.
“In the game we didn’t do what we should have done. We didn’t defend properly the crosses.”