Alexandre Lacazette has three goals and seven assists in the Premier League this season 

WITH just 13 games to go in the Premier League season, and an important top-four race to focus on, Arsenal once again find themselves tackling the same recurring problem: players whose futures at the club are unclear.

Crucially, the names in question this time around are Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah – Arsenal’s only centre-forwards.

The duo joined the Gunners’ first-team in 2017 almost at the same time, Lacazette coming from boyhood club Lyon and Nketiah breaking through Arsenal’s youth academy.

Both, however, are heading for the exit door at the Emirates when their contracts run out on June 30.

With European football looking increasingly likely next season, surely Arsenal should keep at least one of them at the club, but which one?

Alexandre Lacazette

Arriving for a then club record fee of £46m, Lacazette joined Arsenal boasting a scoring tally of 100 goals in just 203 games for Lyon.

Fans rightfully had high expectations, but sadly the French forward has never met them. He scored just 14 goals in his first season, which to this day is the best he’s ever managed in a campaign while wearing an Arsenal shirt.

Lacazette followed that by scoring 13, 10 and then 13 goals again in the next three seasons. This term, however, such returns would be a dream as he endures his worst ever spell in front of goal, netting just three times in 20 appearances.

Having said that, statistics can be misleading: reaching double figures for four seasons in a row in unsettled Arsenal squads that always seemed to be missing one or two key signings isn’t easy to do.

Despite Lacazette’s lack of goals the 30-year-old is currently playing a crucial role in Arsenal’s push for Champions League football with seven assists – more than any other player in the squad.

So, while it’s clear that he won’t be providing the 20-plus goal season that Arsenal regularly demand from their strikers, Lacazette could still come in very handy going forward – especially as an experienced leader guiding a very young team going into Europe.

Eddie Nketiah

With reports suggesting that Nketiah has already turned down a new contract at Arsenal, the question is should the club really push the boat out and offer the young striker a deal that’s too good to turn down?

Unlike fellow academy stars Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, Nketiah has struggled to break into Arsenal’s starting line-up.

Since joining the first-team squad in 2017 the 22-year-old has featured 46 times for the Gunners in the Premier League, scoring just five goals. He also had a loan spell at Leeds United when they were in the Championship, where he played 17 games and scored just three goals.

It must be noted, however, that in the majority of his games Nketiah has started on the substitutes’ bench. In fact, a staggering 35 of the 46 times he has played for Arsenal in the league he’s started off on the sidelines.

There’s an ongoing debate between Gooners: either Nketiah has never really been given an opportunity at the Emirates, or he simply hasn’t been good enough to earn more pitch-time when he has played.

One factor that can’t be ignored is Nketiah’s record on the international stage, where he has scored 16 goals in just 17 games for England’s Under-21s – shattering Alan Shearers’ record of 13 goals for the same age group in the process.

At club level, however, it seems Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta won’t be rushing to start Nketiah again anytime soon – even when supposedly facing a striker crisis.

So it seems that unless Nketiah suddenly starts coming off the bench and banging in the goals this season – which he has failed to do so far throughout his Gunners’ career – his days in north London are very much numbered.

And even if he did find his shooting boots, all the noise coming out of the club suggests that Nketiah is ready to move on this summer.