Following what was at times a testing transfer window, Arsene Wenger moved late to secure the services of Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez.
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“He’s someone you can play well with”.
Mustafi is expected to make his Arsenal debut against Southampton this weekend despite suffering an ankle injury scare on worldwide duty with Germany, while Perez is also in line to make his competitive Gunners bow.
Wenger insisted that Lucas was not a panic buy, with the 27-year-old scoring 17 La Liga goals in 36 appearances for Deportivo La Coruna last season.
All in all it sounds like he may be the ideal partner for Koscielny at the heart of the Arsenal defence, so should Per Mertesacker and Gabriel be anxious about their own chances of first team football?
‘He is uncomfortable to play against, ‘ Mustafi, a £35million summer signing from Valencia, told Arsenal Player. Mesut Ozil should start behind Giroud, with Theo Walcott and Alex Oxalde-Chamberlain fighting it out for a place on the right.
Mustafi, who is likely to slot straight into the Arsenal defence alongside Laurent Koscielny, added of Perez: ‘I played there for two years and I know it’s not that easy to score many goals in La Liga.
‘I think he’s going to help the team a lot’.
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Arsenal fans will be pleased with the Arsene Wenger’s summer signings which saw Granit Xhaka (£30m), Takuma Asano ( £800,000), Rob Holding (£2m), Kelechi Nwakali (£3m), Lucas Perez (£17m) and Shkodran Mustafi (£35m) join the club. Now they will be hoping to get one over a Southampton side that only has two points to their name so far.
