Shkodran Mustafi has finally put pen to paper to join Arsenal after weeks of negotiations, with the German centre-half moving to the Gunners for a sizeable £35million on a long-term deal.
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“He is very focused, and he knows the rigorous climate of the Premier League and how much you have to fight for every game”. The Spaniard excels at making runs behind the defence and can also take opponents on one-on-one, making him a threat with the ball at his feet outside the area.
The 27-year-old has had spells with PAOK in Greece and Karpaty Lviv and Dinamo Kiev in the Ukranian Premier League.
He had the best season of his career with Deportivo last season, scoring 17 goals in 37 appearances for the club. In that sense, he’s a bit of a gamble.
“We have reached a fundamental agreement with Arsenal, but nothing is signed yet”. OK, that’s a bit harsh, but Perez certainly wasn’t Wenger’s No. 1 target going into the summer.
Perez has only enjoyed one season of prolific goalscoring at the highest level, netting 17 times in La Liga last season, but is yet to play Champions League football.
“I prefer playing as a striker but I have no problem playing anywhere up front”.
Whilst Koscielny was rushed back in the second game of the season, away to Leicester, to shore up a struggling backline and Ozil started against Watford but Giroud has been limited to 12 minutes off the bench at the King Power. He was a part of Germany’s world cup winning squad in 2014 and gained prominence there onwards.
Mustafi will become the third reigning World Cup victor to ply his trade at the Emirates as he will join his 2014 Germany teammates Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil – the Gunners also had Lukas Podolski on their books before he joined Galatasaray.
Though Wenger claimed the signings of Mustafi and Perez were not panic buys, it seems they were bought in to appease the fans and release the pressure on him.
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Late in the summer transfer window, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger oversaw some vital outgoings that were concluded in order to trim down his large squad.
