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