It didn’t take Alexandre Lacazette long to get off the mark for us - 15 minutes to be exact - as he met Alex Iwobi’s cross to double our lead against Sydney FC at ANZ Stadium.
Arsene Wenger feels that although the match was a friendly, it could be a key moment in helping the France international settle into life at the club.
“It is important for him to get that [first goal] off his shoulders because you expect to score if you are a striker,” Wenger said in his post-match press conference.
“You could see that he was happy but overall what we were looking for was to play at pace and to develop our collective game and for long periods in the game that was quite good for us. We had tough opposition because they fought for every ball but at the end of the day their goalkeeper was the man of the match.”
Wenger was also pleased with Danny Welbeck’s display as he went close several times during a bright performance.
“I would say that he worked very hard,” the manager said. “He made many chances in the first half and was so keen to score that sometimes he looked too much for power.
“He put into the game what we expect of him. He’s a great team player and I expect him to have big season. He was out for such a long time that I hope this will be a positive season for him.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.