Alexandre Lacazette to leave Arsenal and return to Lyon

Alexandre Lacazette is set to leave Arsenal for a return to his hometown club Lyon after nearly five years in North London.

Lacazette joined the Gunners in 2017 from Lyon for a then club-record fee of £46.5m bettering the £42.4m paid for Mezut Ozil in 2013.

Subject to confirmation, the 31-year-old will leave the Emirates Stadium with a solitary FA Cup to consolidate an overall disappointing stay at the club.

Highly sought after following a break-out campaign with his boyhood team, finishing Ligue 1 top scorer and winning Player of the Year in 2014/15, the France international was expected to help then manager Arsene Wenger push his side back into the big time.

He made an instant impact at the club, scoring just 94 seconds into his Premier League debut in a 4-3 win over Leicester City before notching in his next two home games.

Injuries eventually slowed the fast start, however, and eventually defined an underwhelming period in the Premier League.

Alexandre Lacazette: Honest, hard-working but still a flop?

Lacazette’s best season in an Arsenal shirt came in the 2018/19 season with him named Supporters’ Player of the Season after scoring 13 Premier League goals, one less than his best output in that of his debut season.

Goals failed to come as easy in his final campaign, finishing with a meagre return of 4 goals helped only by a tally of 7 assists.

The latter is representative of the player Lacazette has developed into, with the creative aspects of his game now more pertinent.

Following club-captain and striker partner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s departure in January, Lacazette became the most senior member of a young dressing room and saw him handed the armband after the turn of the year.

A failure to rise to the responsibility afforded resulted in him losing his place to youngster Eddie Nketiah who provided a greater potency in front of goal than his senior teammate.

Missing out on Champions League football with the focus of his side’s problems being in his position provided a bitter end to an indifferent yet honest and hard-working stint with Arsenal.

Lacazette has accepted half of his current salary to return to his homeland as a free agent upon his contract expiry this summer, as quoted by Get French Football News via L’Équipe.