Of all of the big-name summer signings to arrive in the Premier League before the start of the 2017-18 campaign Alexandre Lacazette has proven to be one of the more frustrating cases since being announced as an Arsenal player.

The arrival of the 26-year-old, signed from French outfit Lyon in a club-record deal worth £46.5 million, was a serious message of intent from Arsene Wenger after years of failed pursuits.

And it took just two minutes for the Frenchman to make his mark on the Premier League in the opening match of the campaign, getting in front of his man to delicately nod home into the corner and get the ball rolling as his new side Arsenal saw off Leicester City 4-3 in an entertaining first match.

Three more goals in his next two home games followed, taking his tally at the Emirates to four in three matches, and it seemed like Lacazette had needed very little time to settle into the tempo and physicality of the English game.

But since October the trajectory of his Arsenal career hasn’t quite continued in the same upward manner, not helped by the peculiar way in which manager Wenger has used his £46.5 million striker.

Lacazette was a notable omission from the starting eleven for when the Gunners took the trip to runaway leaders Manchester City in November – a match that Arsenal lost 3-1 – and it was Wenger’s decision to leave his big money forward out of the side that left Arsenal fans scratching their heads in disbelief.

The decision seemed even more strange when, just moments after being introduced as a second-half substitute, Lacazette was in the right place at the right time to fire home and halve the deficit.

Was it a lack of faith from Wenger? After all, he had also been omitted from the starting eleven for the harrowing 4-0 defeat at Anfield early on in the season, coming on late as a substitute on that occasion too.

It seems bizarre to spend so much money on a quality player only to leave them out of the big matches, and for whatever reason Wenger’s choice-making has been a nightmare for Draft Fantasy managers.

As well as being left out on those occasions, Lacazette has only completed 90 minutes of football twice in 15 Premier League appearances – on the opening day, and during Saturday’s thrilling defeat.

And whilst he may still be chipping in with the odd goal, taking his tally up to eight for the season following his strike against Manchester United, it seems that there are other forwards in the Premier League that are much more reliable Draft Fantasy options ahead of the notoriously demanding festive schedule.

The statistics suggest that Lacazette isn’t quite hitting top stride yet for Arsenal either with the Frenchman’s 25 shots this season coming at an average of 1.6 per game, a tally that is far from his prolific best at Lyon last year where he averaged just under three shots per 90 minutes of football.

He’s struggled to be a creative hub for his teammates too; in 2016-17, he created 46 chances in 30 appearances compared to just 12 in 15 matches so far this year, and to put this into a sense of perspective this season’s current tally is less than Arsenal teammates Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey.

Whilst it’s easy to say that there’s no comparison between Ligue 1 and the Premier League in terms of difficulty, the jury is still out on Lacazette at the Emirates and it’s not good news for Draft Fantasy at present.

With a chaotic Christmas period drawing ever closer it would be wiser to opt for a more reliable option – perhaps an Eden Hazard, a Harry Kane or a Sergio Aguero – as Lacazette continues to settle in.