Arsenal: Lucas Perez can still provide value

Lucas Perez returns to Arsenal this summer after a year on loan at Deportivo la Coruna. The Spaniard can still provide value, especially in Unai Emery’s system.

When a new manager comes to a club, changes inevitably occur. He brings with him new ideas, new strategies, new opinions, a change of approach that can have serious ramifications on the fabric of the whole club. These changes offer opportunity. Time and time again, seemingly stagnating players have been revitalised by the introduction of a new coach.

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At Arsenal, that invigoration never came. They always had the same coach, the same ideas, the same plans, the same training sessions. The same traits were desired; the same players were offered chances. That is until this summer. Arsene Wenger is no more. This is now Unai Emery’s era.

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That new era brings hope for those previously shunned by the former regime. There is now a fresh perspective, a blank slate, a new opportunity for all of the players in the squad. Those that were previously protected by Wenger can no longer rest on their laurels, assuming their place in the starting XI is safe; those that Wenger tended to overlook and underrate now have the chance to stake their claim for a greater role in the squad. And that perhaps is no less applicable than for Lucas Perez.

The Spaniard was signed two summers ago. Arsenal were in desperate need of a striker and, after missing out on Jamie Vardy, Gonzalo Higuain and Alexandre Lacazette, who they would return to the year after, they settled on Perez, the man dubbed the Spanish Vardy for his late-blooming career and scrappy, speedy, dog-fighting style of play.

But, despite a series of bright performances in the domestic cups, Wenger never took to him. By the end of the season, he was jettisoned from the squad and allowed to leave on loan, rejoining the team with which he made his name, Deportivo la Coruna.

After another frustrating season in which la Coruna suffered relegation and Perez suffered the vituperation of the fans, the Spaniard now returns to north London hoping to find new life under a manager who is reportedly willing to give him that one last opportunity to thrive.

Certainly, there are stylistic similarities. Emery likes speedy, goal-scoring wingers who have the willingness to run away from the ball and at the defence; Perez possesses great pace, often looks to dart in behind the opposition defence, and can finish. Emery likes industrious and disciplined attackers who stick to their duties in the system; Perez is wonderfully diligent and hard-working. Emery wants to play with a high press that suffocates the opposition and wins the ball high up the pitch; Perez excels when he plays on the front foot in an aggressive manner, hounding and harassing his opponents.

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It remains to be seen whether Perez is capable of taking the opportunity that Emery provides. But he will get one and he can still provide value. He now just has to prove it.