Arsenal: Lucas Perez The Wild Card To Save The Season
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal dug their grave even deeper, but they aren’t in it yet. Going to Stamford Bridge, we have to see changes, and Lucas needs to lead those changes.
Arsenal’s loss to Watford… at home… was infuriating. But to count the Gunners out of the title race may be a bit preemptive. There is still hope, but that hope centers on making changes. And I mean real changes. Because if we lose against Chelsea it pretty much is over.
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There are a tone of changes we could start with, but why not go with the man who has yet to be given a proper chance, Lucas Perez? The Spaniard had a fantastic game against Southampton and nearly equalized with a phenomenal effort against Watford.
He has shown up more and more with each additional appearance and its pretty clear that he is right there on the edge of the starting XI waiting for his chance.
We cannot send this same insufferable XI out against Chelsea. Not with how lackluster they looked in the first half. There needs to be an instigator – someone who can change things and just do something different. This Gunner’s attack is old news. Watford were picked apart by it earlier in the season and they adjusted.
Meanwhile Arsenal remained the same.
Lucas Perez is something different. He knows how to pry open defenses. His passing is magnificent and his thunderous left foot mimics Lukas Podolski.
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Enough of using him late on, to pick up the pieces. He needs to be out there setting the table instead.
Of course, the problem comes with where you put him. Wenger is not one to make snap changes and for all intents and purposes, that’s what this would be. It would step on some toes to get Lucas into that starting XI and the man who would likely give way is Olivier Giroud.
But honestly, that’s okay. Ideally, I’d love to see Welbeck up front with Alexis and Lucas flanking him. It’s combining the best of both worlds. Scrap what everyone knows Arsenal can do and do something different. Chelsea were embarrassed by the Gunners earlier in the year, like Watford, and they are going to have adjusted.
We have to be proactive here, not reactive. Give Chelsea 60 minutes of sluggishness and we will get stomped.
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Lucas is probably the only true wildcard we have. The one guy that our opponents may not know that well just yet. That has to be used to our advantage.