Alexandre Lacazette has revealed he was not keen on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before the player joined Arsenal in 2018.
Aubameyang left the Emirates in the January transfer window to join Barcelona after falling out-of-favour with manager Mikel Arteta.
Before his exit, Aubameyang and Lacazette enjoyed a close friendship together and performed well when selected as strike partners for Arsenal.
However, speaking to Canal+, Lacazette disclosed a dislike for Aubameyang’s social media activity before arriving from Borussia Dortmund and claimed the Gabon international has a different personality away from the public.
He explained: ‘I had some misconceptions about him. Before he arrived, I didn’t like him. To be honest, I’m not mates with the Aubemayang you see on Instagram. I’m mates with Pierre-Emerick. People don’t know Pierre-Emerick. They know Aubameyang.’
Despite arriving six months apart at Arsenal, Aubameyang and Lacazette were rarely played together in a two up front with the former often pushed out to the wing.
But, during Unai Emery’s time in charge, they were fruitful in Arsenal’s run to the Europa League final in 2019, with both players scoring all four goals in a 4-2 away win at Valencia.
At the start of this campaign, Arteta briefly rekindled their partnership as Aubameyang and Lacazette starred in a 2-0 win at Leicester City in October.
But a loss of form and a breakdown in relationship with Arteta saw Aubameyang join Barcelona in January putting an end to his time in London.
Since going to the Nou Camp, Aubameyang has scored eight goals in nine league matches for his new side. Lacazette, in contrast, has scored just four league goals this campaign.
But the Arsenal forward believes hitting the back of the net is not everything in football.
He added: ‘Social media, statistics, for me that’s not football. Football is the guys on the pitch and their passion.
‘When I was younger I started to believe in it, but then in growing up, I saw that it’s not the most important for me to score loads and loads of goals every season because at Lyon I scored plenty of goals but at the end of the day I won very few trophies.
‘I would have preferred to score five goals and win a trophy each season.’
