Alexandre Lacazette proved to be the difference maker for Arsenal at the Emirates this afternoon but Unai Emery may have been preparing to withdraw him before the French striker opened the scoring in a 2-0 win over Everton.
Lacazette had endured a frustrating first half against the Toffees, drifting wide right but struggling to create any opportunities nor dovetail with the rest of Arsenal’s attack.
That changed dramatically in the 56th minute, when the Frenchman picked up Aaron Ramsey’s pass on the left corner of the box. With one touch he checked back inside, with the next he curled a superb strike beyond Jordan Pickford and into the net.
Alex Iwobi was being readied before Lacazette scored and was soon instructed to continue his warm-up. Emery was evasive when asked who the Nigerian international might have been replacing.
“We needed a change to give us another individual quality on the pitch,” Emery said. “When we scored the goal I decided to stop it and think again who we needed next.”
Asked directly whether Lacazette was the one who was set to make way Emery paused for several seconds before answering: "It’s not important. Maybe it was.”
Lacazette’s goal was soon followed by another from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as, not for the first time this season, Arsenal followed a disappointing opening period with a second half blitz.
Emery said: “In 90 minutes there are moments for the opposition and us. We need the goalkeeper to stop their attacking moments and our strikers to score. Today was a good example.
“We want to control more, above all the first half. We didn’t have the ball like we wanted to. We conceded two, three important chances for Everton.
‘“But the second half we spoke in the dressing room to stop their attacking moments with better positioning on the pitch and helping each other and pushing more.
“We only conceded chance - a free-kick Petr Cech saved very well - but not more and in 20 minutes we played to win the match. We defended very well in the last few minutes near our box.”
