Arsenal to keep Giroud, Welbeck AND Perez as backups to Lacazette?

It has become a fact of life in the Premiership nowadays that if you want to challenge for every trophy every season you need quality in depth in every position, to allow for injuries, suspensions and squad rotation. With the extra amount of games that Arsenal will have to play in the Europa League this season we will need more depth than ever.

We all know that the Gunners have signed one top quality striker in Lacazette, and he has made it clear that Giroud will stay and fight for his place. Wenger said: “We extended his contract last year so our resolution is to keep him here, because we extended his contract. He has a great value to the squad and I think as well he is a great lover of the club. He loves the club and has always been very determined to stay.”

Olivier was our plan B last season, and a very accomplished supersub so keeping him makes sense, but what about Lucas Perez, who has made it clear he’s not been happy with his lack of playing time. Although the Spaniard has not gone to Australia for the pre-season tour, it seems he is also not going to get his wish to move back to his hometown club Deportivo La Coruña. President Tino Fernandez has made it clear that they don’t expect Arsenal to let him return in a cut-price deal. “We’ve spoken to Arsenal, we were interested and we informed them of that, although it’s true that that was days ago and other things have happened since then, like the fact that he will not be with the team for a few games,” he said. “The possibility of a return to Depor? It’s remote.”

As Arsenal paid so much for Lucas last summer, and his large wage packet, it is unlikely that any Spanish clubs would think he is a value signing, and it was revealed by the Arsenal Direct club shop that Perez has lost his Number 9 number to Lacazette, but he has now been allocated Number 28 instead. That sounds like Arsenal expect him to stay….

As for Welbeck, there has not been one single rumour linking him with a move away, and there probably never will until he can prove he can stay fit for a whole season at least. And again, we will have lots of games to fit him in with rotation….

Wenger himself was asked directly if he would be keeping all his strikers this summer, and he just said that they will just have accept the competition that goes with being at a big club. “I don’t know yet.” he said. “It’s always the same problem – when you have only one striker, people ask why you don’t buy another one. When you have two or three, they say that they will be unhappy because you have too much competition. That’s part of the job. We are in a job where we are very lucky to do what we love but as well we have chosen a competitive job, that means the players have to accept competition and my decisions as well, unfortunately!”

Unfortunately for the players on the bench, but not for the fans! So it looks like Arsenal will have a fantastic array of striking options next season, and we are probably going to need them all….

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17 Comments

  1. Lucas is as good as gone. If I had any doubts before (which I didn’t) they all went away as soon as I saw that the number 9 went to Lacazette. Giroud, Welbeck, Walcott are staying so we have plenty of options up front.

  2. Personally I would rather we keep OG / Welbeck / Theo / and Alexis should he stay as cover for Lacazette.

    We need to offload Perez and several other players like Joel to create room for a Lemar or Mahrez. Whether Perez stays or not its not like Wenger will play him anyway. He will end up just getting paid for free like Debuchy and holding a foreign player slot in the squad. We have enough squad players as it is, we need to free up some space and bring in players who will push for a starting spot in the first 11.

  3. I dont think any deals will take place other than Perez, Debuchy, Gibbs until Aussie tour ends. Even Ozil says he will finalised contract after Aussie tour.

  4. I would not mind keeping lucas, i think he can also play the ozil role, but by all accounts he may be moving back to spain, so unfortunate hr and the manager seem to not get along.
    Really looking forward to see the first match and how our players look, going to have my eyes on Malen an interesting young player

  5. Would have liked to see Walcott leave. But he said he intends to fight for a place so that’s that. Lemar prob looks how he imagined Theo would turn out with enough training. We are not sorted on that right flank. I’m not sure Perez is the answer either. His game seems to be strong in the off the ball movement. But you want a winger to be creative as well as scoring, and have a bit of tenacity about him. Perez got some good assists last season but they were mostly all open goal finishes. Would have liked to have seen more of him, but now I would like us to be feeling very confident in the player we use on that flank.

    I don’t think we will see the 343 in almost all the games. Because he’ll change to give others playing time and not every winger can play wing-back. Also at home against teams who sit in, there’s no point going three at the back in those games.

    That’s why Lemar sounds so appealing, he can play a number of positions besides his left wing role, not least RWF and CM supposedly. And if gotten now he might be better placed to replace Alexis next season if Alexis lets his contract run down, or if not, well then at least we know he’s not suitable just yet. I think it could be a mistake to feel fine about Walcott Perez Oxlade as wing options, Oxlade only gets brought in when the others are allowing players run at our fullbacks uninterrupted.

    1. of course walcott is staying as no one will buy him unless we knock price down to 10m given his absurd wages … half whippet half albatross … good for league cup and thursday nights if he stays … which idiot upped his contract a couple of yeqars ago ….

  6. We can’t keep everybody, there are only so many squad places. Also with the players coming in the books have to be balanced

    1. Well we can keep everyone if we want and can afford too. We can only list 25 over 21s for the EPL, however, anyone not listed can still play in the carabao cup, fa cup and efl trophy. We can also name a completely different squad for the Europa league. Remember we have at least two players that won’t be fit for a while.

  7. When we have Lacazette, Alexis, Giroud, Welbeck for CF and Alexis, Iwobi, Welbeck, Lacazette (Lacazette can play both wings) for LW then I don’t see why we should keep Lucas.

    Also why make Lucas sit the bench most of the time. It’s not fair on Lucas. He should have the opportunity to play more often. Lucas will just go moldy here

  8. Please we should allow the guy leave or play him more next season, which I don’t think will happen. .
    He would be a superstar elsewhere.. .

  9. Striker questions are great… But are we going to have to put up with the Xhaka tortoise in midfield again this season… This will cost us at some point!

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