Arsenal: Lucas Perez deserves to be warmed from out the cold

Lucas Perez will return to Arsenal after a frustrating year on loan with Deportivo la Coruna. The striker, under Unai Emery, deserves to be warmed from out of the cold.

Lucas Perez was never really offered a chance at Arsenal. He was signed in the tail end of the summer transfer window after the club had pursued Jamie Vardy earlier on. There were reports that he was an afterthought. It certainly seemed that way given the way that he was treated during the sole season that he was at the Emirates.

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And then, after being screened out of the squad in the closing weeks of the season, the striker was sent out on loan. His destination was his former club, Deportivo la Coruna, a place where he was considered a hero. Unfortunately, his return was not so heroic.

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Perez toiled through a torrid time in Deportivo, even seeing himself live long enough to become the villain to a fan base that he was previously enamoured and revered within. And now, he comes to Arsenal for the second time hoping to resuscitate a career that is rather quickly spiralling down the drainpipe. Thankfully for Perez, Arsene Wenger is no longer at the club. Unai Emery is now the manager. That means new ideas, new philosophies, new positions, new responsibilities, a new opportunity.

And there have been reports in the media suggesting that Emery is an admirer of Perez’s qualities from his time managing with Sevilla in Spain, a team that Perez scored twice against in Emery’s final season as manager there. So, is it time for the man who had been thrust into the cold to be warmed on his return?

Certainly, there are stylistic similarities that suggest Perez could have a role to play. Emery stated in his introductory that he wanted to play with an intense press. That requires quick, mobile, highly-industrious and diligent attackers. Perez is the perfect example of such a mould.

Moreover, Emery has always liked positionally intelligent and versatile forward players, often asking them to rotate into different areas of the pitch depending on the state of the game at that point — which team is in possession; the defensive and offensive orientations of other players; the position of the ball; the probability of creating a chance and many other different factors.  Again, that is a role that Perez can play nicely.

He is also a very different player to what Emery already has available to him. Unlike Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and even Alexandre Lacazette to an extent, Perez is not always dropping deep and looking to receive the ball to his feet. He is much more akin to Danny Welbeck and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, darting in behind opposing defences, stretching the pitch, creating space for his teammates.

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Will Perez ever be an entrenched starter? No, probably not. But that does not mean that he does not have a part to play in the Emery era. He can still perform a role and perform it well. It’s time to welcome Perez in from the cold.