Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that new signings Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi were taken aback by the break-neck speed of the English Premier League (EPL) during debuts for the club.
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Gunners coach Arsene Wenger said Alexis Sanchez will have to be assessed before being confirmed as playing following a travel-heavy global break, while Per Mertesacker, Gabriel and Aaron Ramsey are all sidelined with injury. “He is on the a good way, but not completely ready for Southampton or Tuesday”.
Alexis Sanchez will be assessed after only returning from global duty with Chile on Thursday night but I expect the attacker to start. Wenger said that he would have to make a decision in “the next 24 hours” on whether to risk starting him this weekend. The only problem was that it was their third match of the 2016-17 campaign.
The Arsenal manager spoke positively of the clubs’ two newest additions.
The Gunners followed victory at Watford before the global break with a dramatic 2-1 win over Southampton at Emirates Stadium to move to within five points of leaders Manchester City. Mustafi is a young centre back and already has worldwide experience. Ozil’s control once again let him down as he wasted another good opportunity, before debutante Lucas Perez forced a fine sliding block out of Ryan Bertrand.
“We have frustration but we also showed really good things”.
Perez chose to join Arsenal as he wanted to play Champions League football, despite Spanish giants Villarreal and Sevilla making the first move on the striker.
It was Perez who came out on top, scoring twice for Deportivo La Coruna against the German centre-back’s Valencia.
Mustafi played the full 90 minutes while Perez was taken off for Olivier Giroud after 62 minutes.
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Davis, who captained Northern Ireland to the last-16 stage of Euro 2016, believes Southampton’s squad will settle following last week’s global break.
