Alexandre Lacazette: Mikel Arteta brings ‘completely different vision’ to Arsenal after Unai Emery

Striker admitted his ‘unhappiness’ at being left out but praised the club’s promising batch of youngsters

Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette has praised the progress made by youngsters at the club this season and says he’s happy to take on a mentor role as a senior player.

The former French international has notched 12 goals in all competitions this term, which has been a disappointing one at the Emirates for the club overall.

Earlier in the campaign, Unai Emery was replaced by Mikel Arteta and Lacazette says the two managers have an extremely different approach to the job.

“It is a completely different way to manage a squad, a team, a different tactical vision as well, it is hard to cite all the changes, there are so many,” he said to Canal Plus.

“What the coach asks of me is different. They have completely different visions the pair of them.”

While back in the team now, Lacazette concedes he felt “unhappiness” when left out of the side earlier in the campaign, but says he and fellow striker Eddie Nketiah “support each other” and the other starlets breaking through have enjoyed similarly promising seasons.

“They are very good youngsters, humble and working every day. I think they are the future of the club because we know that these days clubs need their youngsters.

“[Bukayo] Saka and [Gabriel] Martinelli have had very good first seasons. And Joe Willock and Reiss [Nelson] help us with the small playing time that they have, which makes it not always that easy for them.

“I like to speak with the young guys. Even at Lyon, I really always got on well with them. If it is a youngster or someone more experienced, I will always tell them what I think can help them in a match, they will also talk to me. That is the relationship of trust that we have in the team, to try to help each other.”