Arsenal: Thomas Lemar blow the perfect opportunity

Per L’Equipe, Thomas Lemar’s father wants the Monaco winger to stay in France in a World Cup year. It is a blow for Arsenal’s hopes of signing him, but it could offer the perfect opportunity.

With the threat of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and others leaving the club, Arsene Wenger is attempting to bolster his attacking options. It is expected that in the coming days he will officially break Arsenal’s transfer record to add Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette, he has publicly declared his admiration for a number of different players and has made offers for Monaco starlets Kylian Mbappe and Thomas Lemar.

While Lacazette is all but an Arsenal player, the hopeful addition of a winger, potentially as a replacement for Sanchez, is a far less likely occurrence. Given the recent trajectory of the reports, it is seemingly a choice between two players: the aforementioned Lemar, and Leicester City attacker Riyad Mahrez.

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Both Lemar and Mahrez offer an intriguing prospect that the Gunners should explore. Lemar is an extremely creative, talented player on the ball, with an extremely incisive, quick mind. He is able to find pockets of space in the final third thanks to a great awareness and intelligence, receive the ball on the half turn, and look to prod and to probe the opposition with sliding, through balls into the channels.

Mahrez, on the other hand, is a more traditional winger. First and foremost, he is quicker, both in short areas and in terms of sheer speed over longer distances. But more than mere athletic gifting, he is a smoother dribbler than Lemar, is able to glide past opponents with ease. He is wonderfully fluid in his movement, swerving his way through the traffic like a free-flowing stream cascading down a mountain crevasse.

It would be a surprise if Arsenal signed both Mahrez and Lemar; they play similar positions with the same, attacking, creative intentions. As such, it will likely be a straight choice between one or the other. That choice, though, may have been made for them.

Per a report in L’Equipe, Lemar’s father would like his son to stay in France, spurning a move to the Premier League, given the looming presence of a World Cup next summer, and the fierce competition that he will face in securing a place in the French squad given the array of talent available to Didier Deschamps.

Next: Arsenal: 3 players who will fall in love with Lacazette

It would be disappointing to miss out on Lemar. But if it meant that Arsenal signed Mahrez instead, then it could end up being the perfect opportunity for the Gunners to progress.

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