Alexander Hleb says he doesn’t think Alexandre Lacazette is a fantastic signing for the Gunners, as he thinks Olivier Giroud remains the better option at centre-forward.

Hleb was speaking to the Independent ahead of Arsenal’s game against BATE Borisov, having played for both teams. He admitted that Arsenal’s acquisition of Lacazette was “good”, but perhaps not great that they really need.

“Football is a crazy world now. The market is crazy, there is just so much money involved. Arsenal would have wanted to sign more players but it’s too difficult to compete with the likes of Manchester City and PSG.

“The signings that did come through are good, like Alexandre Lacazette, but I can’t say that’s a ‘fantastic’ signing. I am a fan of Giroud and I don’t think Lacazette is better than him. I think the two are on the same level.”

So far, Lacazette has been outperforming his compatriot in an Arsenal shirt. On the opening day of the Premier League season, the former opened the scoring to make it 1-0 against Leicester and Giroud concluded it to make it 4-3. But since then, Lacazette has been the only one to get himself on the scoresheet.

Wenger clearly feels the better striker is the club-record signing rather than Giroud as he’s continued to choose the 26-year-old over the 30-year-old this season.

There’s a bit of extra pressure on Giroud’s shoulders at the moment, as he is just one away from reaching 100 goals for Arsenal in all competitions. But he still needs to do a bit more if he’s going to live up to Hleb’s claim, in my opinion.

Both are top quality strikers on their day, but Giroud isn’t quite showing it at the moment. He has the chance to change that against BATE Borisov tonight should he feature.