Alexandre Lacazette says Arsenal did not panic after their poor start to the season and are now reaping the rewards of their hard work during that bad run.
The striker scored twice to secure a 2-0 win against West Brom at Emirates Stadium last night as Arsenal moved up to seventh in the table. The Gunners were written off by many observers following their abject 4-0 defeat at Liverpool last month but are now within one point of fourth-placed Tottenham.
Arsenal are unbeaten in September and have kept three clean sheets in the Premier League since their capitulation at Anfield.
Arsene Wenger’s side saw Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool win at the weekend but responded to keep pace with their rivals.
“There was no feeling of panic in the team,” said France striker Lacazette. “We knew that working together would pay off. During September, we have reconstructed ourselves defensively and we are working together. We won with a clean sheet and everything was perfect [against West Brom] with the possession and the goals.”
Lacazette has now scored four goals since his arrival for a club-record £52million from Lyon and has been described as “ice-cold in front of goal” by team-mate Granit Xhaka.
The spotlight was on Lacazette on Monday night after Harry Kane, Alvaro Morata, Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku all scored at the weekend.
But Lacazette showed his confidence with a coolly-taken penalty to seal victory against West Brom and Xhaka said: “You can see that he is ice-cold in front of goal. Now he needs to do the same away – then I will be really pleased. He is an important player for us. We know his qualities.”
Wenger was pleased with a positive result at the beginning of a demanding week for Arsenal.
The Gunners travel to Belarus to play BATE Borisov in the Europa League on Thursday before a home game against Brighton in the Premier League on Sunday.
There was controversy last night, though, with West Brom being harshly denied a penalty after Shkodran Mustafi appeared to bring down Jay Rodriguez in the box, while Albion boss Tony Pulis later accused Arsenal’s “cheating” Alexis Sanchez of diving.
Rodriguez got back to his feet after the clumsy challenge and forced Petr Cech to tip his shot on to a post as referee Robert Madley appeared to play the advantage. Sanchez had by then already curled wide a free-kick he won on the edge of the area after a challenge from Craig Dawson.
Pulis said: “The disappointing thing is Sanchez falls for the first free-kick, that’s cheating. Everyone saw what happened. Sanchez dives for the free-kick and he should be booked. Then you see [Mustafi’s] tackle in the box. It’s not only a foul but the player can be sent off as well.”
Wenger responded: “The referee left the advantage and they nearly scored from that. He could have given the penalty or not.”
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