Lucas Perez was expected to play a big part in Arsenal’s team this season, with the fans hoping that he’d fill the void left by an absent striker for many years. Lucas hasn’t really had his chance as of yet and injuries have held him back. However, with the Spaniard apparently ahead of schedule in his latest return from injury, he could soon get another chance to show us what he’s got.
Lucas picked up the injury in the last round of the EFL Cup, when Arsenal came out as victors against Championship side Reading. The Spanish striker was having a game of mixed reviews, but after a challenge from Reading’s Gravenberch, he was set for a spell on the sidelines. Initially it was announced that the summer signing from Deportivo was going to be ruled out for around eight weeks whilst he recovered from damaged ligaments. However only a few weeks on from the match and it seems like for once an Arsenal player may recover from injury ahead of schedule.
Lucas announced today that his recovery was going well, with the striker tweeting: “Working already on the pitch. On track for an early recovery.”
Lucas had requested to Arsenal bosses if he would be allowed to return to his native home and work on his physical fitness back in La Coruna. It has been suggested that he was granted this wish, which came as quite a surprise to many Arsenal fans and it raised the question as to whether he may be feeling homesick at all.
Arsenal fans are used to seeing players have setback after setback when it comes to players picking up injuries. However perhaps returning to Spain, where he is more familiar to his surroundings, has boosted his mentality to build on his fitness as soon as possible.
Lucas has largely failed to make the impact expected from him since his reported £17 million move to the Emirates, but it is of course still early days for the player.
By AH
Good news indeed.
I would say though that it is a bit unfair to say Lucas failed to meet fans expectations.
We all knew that in a market where clubs spend well over GBP 50 million for strikers, that Lucas was not bought as a starting player but more to add depth and appease some fans. We all knew at his age he was not a world-class striker in the making. Also the days you buy a WC striker in his age category for GBP 17 million are over. Let’s just be happy we didn’t get Vardy.
I like Lucas, I think he made some great assists from the left and I would pick him over Giroud any day. I just don’t think he will get chance to prove himself bar injury to both Giroud and Sanchez.
But he has definitely not disappointed my expectations. He was not quite a last minute panic buy but definitely an afterthought IMO.
I agree with Jansen, he hasn’t failed to meet my expectations. He would have been a good option to come in for Iwobi on the left, or when Theo was out. We knew what we were getting, and we hoped that we we’d be pleasantly surprised, look at his stats, I thought they were good til this injury. He looked like he was on the way to becoming a useful squad player, and it’s usually final months later on that they adapt best to new surroundings.