Mustafi would rather play with Perez than against him!

Mustafi knows what Perez can bring to Arsenal!

Arsenal’s new signings Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi trained together for the first time today, alongside the the rest of the first team squad. Their first day on the training pitch was captured as the Gunners prepare for this weekend’s clash against Southampton.

The two deals that officially went through in the final 48hrs of the transfer window, raised confidence amongst the Arsenal faithful, that Arsene Wenger had finally addressed some of the pressing concerns that had been present for at least the last few years.

Whilst everyone seems to be perfectly happy with Mustafi, albeit the expense, there have been a few doubters surrounding the quality of Lucas Perez. After all Lucas was certainly not Wenger’s first choice and after a summer of being linked with the likes of Higuain, Morata and Lukaku, just to name a few, you cannot help but compare Lucas with some of those names.

One person who is particularly convinced by Lucas’ abilities and is certain he’ll make an impact at Arsenal, is his fellow new teammate Shkodran Mustafi, who played up against the former Deportivo man in his two years at Valenica. The defender said: “He is uncomfortable to play against. He’s a good striker – he has everything a striker needs.

He’s someone you can play well with. He doesn’t just run around and wait for someone to give him a pass to score a goal. He works a lot for the team as well and he creates chances. He’s in the right place at the right time, as he showed last year in La Liga.

“I played there for two years and I know it’s not that easy to score many goals in La Liga, because you have great defenders there as well. I think he’s going to help the team a lot.”

Mustafi of course improved with Valencia and became rather solid at the back, as he came top of the leaderboard for the most successful tackles over the course of the season during his time in Spain. Despite his best efforts however, Lucas still managed to place 2 of his 17 La Liga goals last season past Mustafi’s back line and so I think the German international is more than aware of the Spanish striker’s capabilities.

With Wenger seemingly still unsure on whether to start with Giroud or not this weekend, largely due to concerns over fitness, Lucas could be in line to make his debut for the Gunners against the Saints. Even if this is not the case, I’d still fully expect him to make a substitute appearance, especially as he can also play on the wing.

By AH

9 Comments

  1. Is it just me, but sometimes Lucas looks a bit one-footed? Quite like the Lukas that wore the no. 9 shirt before him!

  2. That’s class from Mustafi, to big up Lucas perez like that.
    I really hope that Wenger doesn’t dilly dally with Perez’s introduction into the starting lineup, especially when the whole fanbase will be wanting to see him start against Southampton, But knowing Wenger and his way’s of thinking, he will probably want the player to get used to the Arsenal environment from the bench for a few games!
    For example, Wenger will be thinking in the lines of ‘what if I start with Perez and he has a bad game, missing chances, giving the ball away.. etc etc and the fan’s start to turn against him, resulting in the Players moral get dented?’
    Hahaha.. That sounds all too familiar.
    Lets hope that the old dog has learned afew new tricks, since he snubbed Mourinho from sitting at his table in Switzerland last week.

    1. well he would be right and justified to think so wouldn’t? how many fans turn against the player after a very short period?

  3. As for me…..I can’t wait to see him start..
    Lucas is a combination of Suarez and Vardy…….best Arsenal transfer deal this season

  4. Lukas Perez will help much Arsenal’s front line. He is very fast with enough technical ability. I watched his videos, he is capable of doing every thing as a striker. I wish him a successful career at Arsenal.

  5. Is he fast, Ive heard others argue over this. The stupid thing is that they were arguing his pace on FIFA 16/17. He looked quick enough to me in his clips, no Henry of course but who is. Yeah, he looked a bit nippy to me, sort of Freddy Ljungberg nippy. He’s probably quick over early acceleration, maybe slightly slower of long distance. However, AFC usually improve player speeds and distances.

  6. there are 2 doubts hovering over Lucas’ head, first is the normal doubt attached to any relatively unknown player.
    the 2nd doubt and bigger is;
    .
    Will Wenger accept the Giroud-experiment has failed for good and bench him for Lucas?

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