Arsenal: So, Lucas Perez’s ship had sailed after all

Cutting dead weight is just part of the game, but Lucas Perez never seemed like dead weight at Arsenal, despite being treated like it.

Arsenal are putting their finishing touches on their squad for the 2018/19 season, and that involves parting ways with players that aren’t seen as a part of the future of the club. Some have been rather shocking, mainly the youngsters like Kelechi Nwakali and Jeff Reine-Adelaide.

Some have been obvious, like Joel Campbell, who has been waiting to leave for like, two years now.

Lucas Perez wasn’t someone that was going to be offloaded. Or at least, it didn’t seem that way. Unai Emery was intent on giving the Spaniard a chance to actually succeed in North London, after having been left frustrated under Arsene Wenger.

It sounded like a nice idea. After all, many fans will tell you that when Lucas was on the pitch, he was worth his salt. He played well, contributed to the build-up, could score with confidence, and was never singled out as a weak link.

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But when you look at what he was actually up against, you see how impossible the task was. That is, unless he would have been okay with being a massively tertiary figure, which no player really should be.

The problem with Lucas has everything to do with Wenger burying him and the club then getting away from him. Before he was even given a fair chance to succeed, he found himself stuck behind Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil and Mkhitaryan, for starters. Those four are finding it hard enough to start in the same formation, so fitting in Lucas looks to be next to impossible.

Then you factor in Welbeck, whose future is still undecided as they try to figure out if even he has nowhere to fit in.

Eddie Nketiah is on the up and up and no one is going to block his path to first-team inclusion, as you could make the argument that he should be above both Lucas and Welbeck on the pecking order.

Then there’s Iwobi, still festering away. Don’t forget Reiss Nelson, either. Which means that Lucas would have been seventh or eighth or maybe even ninth on the attacking food chain. That’s no place to be for someone that wants what he does.

It was an impossible battle. I had this fairy-tale optimism that he could find his way back into the squad, but it had moved on without him. Now, he is likely going to be sold. For his own good.