Will Arsenal Cope Without Lacazette?

Emery confident Arsenal can cope without Lacazette against Rennes

Alexandre Lacazette’s was suspended in the Europa League last-16 tie few weeks ago.

Unai Emery is now convinced that Arsenal have the depth to cope with Lacazette’s suspension in the Europa League last-16 tie .

Arsenal play away to Rennes in Thursday’s first leg, but Lacazette will not be able to feature in either that match or the return game as he serves the remainder of a three-match ban.

The striker was sent off in the first leg of their last-32 clash with BATE for catching Aleksandar Filipovic with his elbow, and UEFA subsequently decided to suspend him for three matches.

But Emery is optimistic Arsenal will be fine without Lacazette. “Maybe it [the three-match ban] can be a surprise, maybe not,” Emery said in his pre-match news conference.

“We know, usually, when you had a red card, you can take minimum one and maximum three [match ban]. I spoke with him and he said to me, he was asking for one match and I, in the worst case, I said to him in my opinion it was three. We have players and also we have confidence with all the players to play without Lacazette.”

Rennes, who are 10th in Ligue 1, have not been particularly impressive domestically, though a 6-4 aggregate win over LaLiga’s Real Betis proved they are more than capable of causing an upset.

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