Steve Nicol believes Alexandre Lacazette will help Arsenal back into the top-four this season.

Speaking after Arsenal’s 2-0 victory against Sydney FC in their first pre-season game, Nicol had a lot of good things to say about Lacazette to ESPN.

The former Liverpool man seemed very confident the Arsenal record signing would have a positive impact for the Gunners over the season, responding to a question about whether Lacazette could make get the team top-four by saying:

“Yes. He’s going to score more goals than Giroud. If Alexis Sanchez stays then he’s going to help him score more goals as well. So I can only see Arsenal benefiting from signing Lacazette. Lacazette will score goals.”

A ringing endorsement. Lacazette has made a solid start in pre-season, showing us glimpses of what he can do on the ball and grabbing a goal despite not yet completing 90 minutes.

There were some accusations that Arsenal fans were getting too excited over a goal against a relatively weaker side like Sydney FC, but Steve Nicol rejected this suggestion, telling the viewers:

“By the way, I don’t care who your centre-forward scores against, I don’t care if it’s the under-10 boys team. Centre-forwards scoring goals is fantastic for any coach. It keeps them happy, it keeps them confident, and the rest of the team goes ‘hey, this guy scores goals’.”

So with stronger tests coming up, Bayern Munich on Wednesday followed by Chelsea on Saturday, Lacazette, the coach and the team will all be hoping he can get on the scoresheet again and keep the good feeling going.