Alexandre Lacazette apologizes for red card

Arsenal fans are still trying to come to grips with what they witnessed yesterday in Belarus. The heavily favored Gunners dominated possession but still lost 1-0 to a team that had not played a competitive match in two months.

The players ran around the pitch, huffed and puffed yet couldn’t penetrate the Bate Borisov goal. In all, Arsenal had just three shots on target. Instead it was a match filled with misplaced passes, poorly taken corners and shoddy defending.

Alexandre Lacazette had the ball in the back of the net in the 55th minute, but the goal was disallowed as the striker was ruled offside.

Lacazette is a prolific goal scorer, but there is only so much he can do when his teammates are unable to provide him with opportunities to score. In fact, the Frenchman had just two good pieces of service throughout the entire match.

Arsenal’s lack of creativity was hard to watch. It must have been even more frustrating for Lacazette as his efforts proved fruitless. It is therefore somewhat understandable how the striker lost his cool in the 85th minutes when he elbowed Bate’s Aleksandar Filipovic. He received an immediate red card, and will miss the return leg at the Emirates.

Afterwards, Lacazette took to Twitter to apologize for being sent off.

I wasn’t that upset with Lacazette as he appeared to be the only player showing any emotion. This Tweet pretty much sums up my reaction:

Of course Arsenal should and can turn this tie around next week in London. However, with or without Lacazette, there will be no chance of a turnaround if the team continues to lack creativity.