Arsenal’s new striker, Lucas Perez, has explained that although many view his move from Deportivo to Arsenal as a ‘panic buy’, it was actually anything but.

The Spaniard even claims that we the Gunners contacted his people when the window first opened.

Following the announcement of Lucas to Arsenal, the 27-year-old spoke to Arsenal.com and revealed that the Gunners’ interest didn’t just happen over the past few days, the club actually made an inquiry much earlier in the window.

“Well, there was some contact when the transfer window opened,” he revealed.

“As always in football, clubs have to evaluate what they need, but they showed interest when they got in contact. Things happened more quickly towards the end of the window so it could be made official.”

It reminds me of when we signed Mikel Arteta from Everton on transfer deadline day in 2011. Everyone, including Gooners, seemed to think that it was a panic buy after that 8-2 loss at Old Trafford but it turned out that we’d had our beady eyes on him for a long time. It made sense, Arteta was Arsenal through-and-through.

Wenger doesn’t ever appear to ‘panic’, which may be a bad thing at times. However, it does show that Lucas isn’t just being shoe-horned in, as some believe.