Will Lucas suit Arsenal?

Arsenal’s signing of Lucas Perez represent a shift in thinking. Arsene Wenger clearly wants a different type of forward but the challenge now is for him to fit in, writes Adam Bate.

Arsene Wenger often gives the impression that his ideas about the game crystallised some time ago. He’s been forced, for example, to begrudgingly accept that his predictions about the bursting of the transfer bubble have not yet come to fruition.

However, nobody could ignore the lessons of Leicester’s success last season. For some, it was their tactical nous given the use of 4-4-2 and the counter-attack. For others, there was the example of their savvy scouting, with Steve Walsh subsequently poached by Everton.

But Wenger is a coach who has always been keen to talk of his team’s hunger and mental strength, even when such qualities have not been immediately apparent to those outside of the dressing room. It’s this that he was drawn to in Leicester and has been keen to add.

Consider his praise of Alexis Sanchez. “Sometimes he finishes and you think, ‘He’s dead now’,” said Wenger. “But then he recovers and gives 100 per cent again. You always see signs of exhaustion but it’s not, because two days later he’s fine. His style is very explosive.

“Jamie Vardy is a bit similar. They go when they go. They are like the lion. He has to catch the animal in the first 200 metres. If he doesn’t get there, after, he’s dead. They are these kind of killers. When they go, it is to kill and after they have to stop.”

With Wenger unable to persuade Vardy to join Arsenal, the signing of Lucas Perez is a logical alternative. Like the Leicester man, his …

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