Alexandre Lacazette: Arteta rules out contract talks until the summer

Nicholas Hughes

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Now with three league wins on the bounce, Arsenal appear to beginning to turn a corner and Alexandre Lacazette has been a big part of it.

The Frenchman has scored in each of those three victories, including a brace at West Brom on Saturday, and also added Arsenal’s only goal in their League Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester City.

His seven Premier League goals are more than twice the tally of any of his teammates, but even that is apparently not enough to immediately earn a new contract.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said after the win at the Hawthorns that there were no conversations taking place and that a decision on the future of the 29-year-old would be made at the end of the season.

“We will talk in the summer and make a decision then,” he said.

The Gunners have looked a renewed outfit in the past week, with their eight goals in the last three games amounting to almost half of their entire season’s tally through the first 14 matches.

And with Lacazette leading the way in front of goal, his manager admitted his delight at seeing the Frenchman scoring freely.

“I think he is in a great moment, we have to take advantage of that and give him minutes because it seems like he’s enjoying it,” he said.

Alexandre Lacazette leading the way for Arsenal

Arsenal’s No.9 has shouldered much of the goalscoring burden usually placed on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s shoulders, with the club captain having scored only three times this season and just once at home.

Lacazette’s contract does run until 2022 so there is no impending risk of him leaving for free this summer, but if his current form continues one of the first orders of business after the season concludes will be extending his stay at the Emirates.