The Sweden international marked his free transfer from Paris St Germain last season by scoring 28 goals for Manchester United, 17 of them in the Premier League.
And that is the mark Wenger feels Lacazette must achieve starting against Leicester tonight after splashing out a club-record £52.7m to bring the 26-year-old to the Emirates Stadium from Lyon.
“With Lacazette it’s simple,” the Arsenal manager said. “He is an intelligent player who can integrate our game well as we have a game backed on mobility and technique.
“After that we get the efficiency – his record in France last season was to score one in 80 minutes. If he can maintain that record that would be ideal for us as a game lasts 90 so that would guarantee you a goal each time!
“For sure, his goalscoring record is not necessarily transferable from the French League to the English. But you could say that Ibrahimovic transferred an identical amount of goals from France to England. So that’s the target Lacazette should set.”
Wenger admitted, though, there is a tradition of players from Lacazette’s background being reluctant travellers.
“Lyon is a special place in France as they have their own mentality,” he said. “They don’t like to move away usually.
“They produce their own players, the players who grew up around Lyon like Nabil Fekir, Lacazette, Maxime Gonalons. They all stay in Lyon.
“They usually like to stay there. They are players with a special mentality and I did not know whether they wanted to move or not.”
Wenger’s opposite number tonight Craig Shakespeare could use some of that stay-at-home attitude amid talk of a multi-million-pound exodus at Leicester.
But the Foxes boss refuses to lose sleep over late attempts to steal his £50m-rated title-winning stars Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez.
Roma have been knocked back in bids to land Mahrez with Liverpool also poised to move in, while midfield star Drinkwater is on Chelsea’s radar and goalkeeeper Schmeichel has a long list of admirers. Bournemouth were also blocked in a £20m move for Demarai Gray.
Shakespeare insists Leicester don’t have to sell. “The last thing you want is to lose a player on the day of the window closing,” he said. “That’s every manager’s nightmare.
“I wouldn’t sleep at night if all the scenarios that you put to me happened.
“But until we get the bids I haven’t got to worry about that. We’re a club who don’t need to sell, which is vitally important.
“We’ve got owners who want to keep their best players.”
