Arsene Wenger is confident that striker Lucas Perez has shown enough ability in the restricted game time he has had to merit his purchase.
Lucas, a £17million summer recruit from Deportivo La Coruna, has shown plenty of potential for Wenger to have faith in what may come.
Lucas looks poised to get the nod up front for the Gunners tonight against Reading at the Emirates in the EFL Cup.
He scored twice in the third-round win against Nottingham Forest, and laid on two assists for Mesut Ozil in the Champions League 6-0 victory against Ludogorets last week.
And he came off the bench to try to spark firepower for the Gunners in the second-half of the 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough in the Premier League on Saturday
The Arsenal boss said: “He did extremely well against Ludogorets because he came on and gave two great goals”.
“He was a bit like the rest of the team against Middlesbrough, in that he could not have as big an impact because the whole team was not functioning as well”.
“I believe he has the potential to be a great player for us. In training he continues to show he has the potential to play, he now has to transfer that into the games”.
“The more he does that – against Reading he will have an opportunity – the more we will be tempted to say, ‘let’s do it’.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal have defended the huge £2.65million salary and £1million bonus paid to CEO Ivan Gazidis.
Critics have demanded to know why he was being paid such sums despite the north London outfit’s failure to win a trophy last season.
But chairman Sir Chips Keswick backed Gazidis at the club’s AGM on Monday.
He said: “Ivan is doing a first class job in leading the club. We are very fortunate to have him as a CEO.”
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