Mikel Arteta insists captain Alexandre Lacazette is behaving “like someone who wants to stay” at Arsenal after the Frenchman led the Gunners to a dramatic stoppage-time win against Wolves.
The Gunners had looked on course to lose ground on the sides above them in the race for a top-four finish but ultimately ran out 2-1 winners as Jose Sa palmed Lacazette’s effort into his own net in the closing stages.
Earlier, Hwang Hee-chan had been gifted the chance to put Wolves ahead after a mistake from Gabriel Magalhaes and they appeared set to leapfrog Arsenal into fifth before two goals in the last eight minutes turned the game on its head.
Club-record signing Nicolas Pepe levelled with a smart turn and finish just 11 minutes after he came off the bench, but it was Sa’s unfortunate glove which completed a comeback for Arteta’s side – who now sit just a point behind fourth-placed Manchester United with two games in hand.
Arteta said:
“When I see our striker in the 85th minute, chasing a full-back in the corner flag, winning the ball back, playing, going, fighting, missing one chance, missing two chances, going again. What can I do?
“I can only praise him and try to help him as much as possible and give him support. At the end he got the reward. For me, it’s Lacazette’s goal.
“We don’t know what is going to happen at the end of the season. What he needs to do is put aside that future. It is part of our game, we don’t have contracts that run for 20 years. That’s part of our job and we have to be conscious of that.
“There’s nothing to tell him but to praise him, because every single day he behaves like someone that wants to stay with us.”
