Kieran Tierney has praised the “massive” influence of Alexandre Lacazette on his Arsenal team-mates.
The Gunners are right in the hunt for a top-four finish after coming from behind to seal a 2-1 stoppage-time win over Wolves on Thursday night.
Hwang Hee-chan had opened the scoring for the visitors after being gifted a goal to silence the Emirates Stadium – but it would be rocking by full-time.
Nicolas Pepe came off the bench to level for Arsenal before Lacazette, who had endured a frustrating evening, saw his effort turned into his own goal by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa with just seconds left on the clock.
The result puts Arsenal just a point behind Manchester United, who occupy fourth spot but have also played two more games than their old rivals.
Lacazette is out of contract in the summer and has not scored from open play in the Premier League since December 11 but Tierney was in no doubt how key the France striker is to Arsenal’s ambitions.
Asked how important Lacazette has been, he replied: “Absolutely massive.
“The work that he puts in, that people don’t see, people don’t recognise away from the football club, is massive.
“It helps all the young boys, it helps everyone in the team. You can trust him. He’s the captain and he’s just an amazing guy as well.”
Arsenal had won at Molineux in the reverse fixture just two weeks earlier and were criticised by Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves for what he deemed was over-celebrating the result.
“Obviously everyone knows the comments that were made,” added Tierney.
🙌 Good morning, Gooners! pic.twitter.com/q8JS8PHjWJ— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 25, 2022
“So we knew they were going to come out and try to beat us, and get their revenge.
“But we stood up to that challenge. They had a good start and got the goal they needed and wanted. But after that we controlled most of the game.”
Wolves had been on course to leapfrog Arsenal into fifth as Hwang returned to the side to break the deadlock having intercepted a sloppy back-pass from Gabriel Magalhaes to score.
They were unable to hang on, however – the first time they have lost from a winning position in the Premier League in 45 matches.
Neves insists there is still more to come from Bruno Lage’s side as they look to upset the established order further up the table.
“Every game when you don’t win is a missed opportunity,” he told wolves.co.uk.
“This game was not different. Of course, it was an important game for us and for the league.
“Everyone will drop points until the end, a lot of games to go, and we want to keep going like until now.
“Game by game, try to improve, because the last two games we didn’t play how we want to play, but I’m sure we will do that because we work hard and have a great squad. We look at ourselves.
“We keep working, look at the bad things we did in this game and improve for the next one. That’s our main target, improve as a team, improve as players and take as many points as we can.”
