Lacazette frustrated by ‘naïve’ Arsenal & wants Gunners to be ‘nastier’

Alexandre Lacazette is looking for Arsenal to become “nastier” as they are too “naïve” at present to establish the consistency required to take them forward.

A change has already been made in dugout this season as the Gunners look to get themselves back on track.

Unai Emery has been replaced by Mikel Arteta, but improvement at the Emirates Stadium is not going to happen immediately.

The north London giants continue to find that out to their cost, with their latest Premier League outing seeing them held to a 1-1 draw on home soil by Sheffield United.

Lacazette drew another blank in that contest – his seventh in succession – but the Frenchman feels Arsenal are falling short as a collective.

He told RMC Sport on the back of another frustrating afternoon: "They were not very dangerous but this match summarises how we are this season. We are winning the match but don’t get it over the line.

"We are quite naive at the moment. We need to be nastier and more consistent in the 90th to 93rd minutes of matches.

"Especially when we can do better than this. We have the players required. It is a shame."

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Arsenal had led against the Blades through Gabriel Martinelli, but saw John Fleck restore parity seven minutes from time.

The Gunners remain 10th in the Premier League as a result, heading into a derby date with Chelsea on Tuesday, but Arteta is considered to have them heading in the right direction.

German defender Shkodran Mustafi has said:  “It is not tennis when everyone can do whatever they want.

“Just because you have 11 or 18 individually good players does not mean it is going to work.

“It was important to get someone in like Mikel that knows exactly what he wants from each player in each position.

“This is the way we can perform only when someone like him comes in and tells us exactly what he wants and stick to the plan – it makes everything a lot easier.”

Arsenal have collected just one Premier League win under Arteta so far, against Manchester United, but have suffered only one defeat – against Chelsea – and remain in the hunt for Europa League and FA Cup honours.