Arsenal are set to journey to PSV Eindhoven subsequent week to face the Dutch facet within the Champions League, to determine who will advance to the quarter-final stage.
The 2-legged affair will kick off at Philips Stadion on Tuesday 4 March, earlier than ending in north London the next week.
There’s already lots for Arsenal to concentrate on, so they may maybe do with out the added storyline of a former ahead making his return to the Emirates Stadium.
Ex-Arsenal man welcomed to PSV squad
Lucas Perez made a handful of appearances for Arsenal after his 2016 transfer
The switch window is lengthy shut throughout Europe, however the Dutch facet have managed to persuade a free agent to hitch their ranks till the top of the season, outdoors of the common switch window guidelines.
The Boeren introduced on Sunday (February 23) that former Gunners striker Lucas Perez was to hitch the membership with instant impact on a short-term contract.
Lucas Perez, considerably impressively, did handle to notch seven objectives in his 21 appearances
Perez joined Arsenal in 2016 however discovered restricted success, making simply 21 appearances for the Gunners earlier than leaving for fellow London-based facet West Ham United in 2018, with a mortgage again to hometown membership Deportivo La Coruna in between.
The information will instantly conjure up pangs of worry for these related with Arsenal — hardly ever does an ex-player return with one other facet with out by some means discovering themselves on the scoresheet — however there might be no such considerations on this case.
Perez might be ineligible to face Arsenal in each legs, as he arrived after the deadline to resubmit squads to UEFA for the Champions League , however he’ll little question be within the stands, given the context.
Nonetheless, given the membership forked out £17.1million for these 21 appearances, he’ll be an premature reminder of a number of the poor enterprise offers Arsenal have finished up to now, particularly in the event that they fail to progress previous his new facet.
Arsenal might be grateful to keep away from the former-player curse with Perez
In FourFourTwo ’s opinion, Perez has by no means been essentially the most deadly striker — hitting double figures in a single season simply 3 times in his profession, a kind of being within the Spanish third tier final 12 months — however he has discovered the web pretty constantly for each crew he’s performed for.
It’s for that motive that the Gunners might be glad to be avoiding him on the pitch, it’d be written within the stars for him to bag a minimum of one in any other case.
Perez is valued at €500k, based on Transfermarkt . Earlier than any ideas of PSV for Arsenal, nonetheless, they’ve the not-inconsiderate job of defeating Nottingham Forest on the Metropolis Floor, when Premier League motion returns this week .
