believes no longer merits a place in the starting XI after failing to score from open play since December and wants Gabriel Martinelli to play up top instead.
The French striker has only netted once since the turn of the year – a penalty against in March – but had earned plaudits for his link-up play and creativity, creating a platform for the younger attackers around him to thrive.
But that hold-up play was virtually non-existent in back-to-back defeats against Crystal Palace and Brighton and Wright feels Mikel Arteta must drop the out-of-form striker and put Martinelli through the middle.
Speaking on the , Wright said of Lacazette: ‘We went through a phase where people were saying he’s not scoring but he was linking the play and Martinelli, Smith Rowe and Saka were benefiting from him and doing their inverted runs in [behind].
‘But once that’s been figured out, and other building of play is happening, you still haven’t got your main striker in the places where he can make moves to get half chances to finish.
‘When you’ve got a striker that’s not scoring – and he’s not scored for a long time now, I think he’s got four goals this season and two of them are penalties – even the opposition team know: “Listen, we’ve got to make sure we stop the supply to [other players] because this guy won’t score”.
‘He’s not scoring at the moment, and when I watch Alexandre, his runs towards the near post, his runs to the box, are not dynamic enough for him to beat somebody with a half yard so he can get in front of someone.
‘He’s not doing that work, so what’s happening is we’re not scoring, we actually don’t look like scoring and we haven’t got the kind of players up front who can take a half chance. At the moment, when you see our team, where are the goals coming from?
‘People have kind of found out what we’re capable of and what we’re trying to do and it seems quite easy to shut us down in this moment.’
Turning his focus to the impact Martinelli might be able to have instead, Wright continued: ‘Arsenal fans want to see Martinelli playing up front now. Yes, Lacazette gives us some nice link-up play, but now people are finding that out.
‘Sometimes when he goes over he’s not getting the fouls as well. So what’s happening is [opposition teams] are using the fact that Laca goes down, and the referees are kind of on to that, and they’re not giving the fouls where you want your centre-forward to hold it up and stop the play – but they’re not even giving us those fouls. So yes he does link up the play, but I would try Martinelli.’
He added: ‘I look at Gabriel Martinelli, that guy is f***ing trying man. He’s trying! We saw what he did against Liverpool, he’s such a threat.’
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