Why I denied Lacazette his Arsenal’s first hat-trick – Wenger (its no doubt that Wenger has been trending for a while and this seems to be out of it, click to read the full details)

Lacazette continued his impressive start to life with the Gunners on Monday as he scored twice in a 2-0 victory over West Brom.

Lacazette opened the scoring in the Premier League encounter at Emirates Stadium in the 20th minute, before going on to convert a 67th-minute penalty.

The 26-year-old would have had his eyes on the match ball at that stage, but was replaced seven minutes from the end by countryman Olivier Giroud.

Explaining that decision, Wenger told the Evening Standard, “I took him off because he was tired.

He said, “I would have loved him [to score a hat-trick]… he had an opportunity. But I gave him the penalty as well you know. Overall what you want is to win the game and not take any gamble.

He added, “If they come back to 2-1 it can be nervy in the end so when a guy is a bit tired there’s no need to. They’re very strong on set-pieces, when you have Giroud on the bench, you know we might have to defend them or Giroud could score a third goal.”

Arsenal will face BATE on Thursday in the Europa League, although it remains to be seen whether Lacazette will figure in that contest or if Wenger will once again take the opportunity to rotate his squad in continental competition.

September 26, 2017 sports