OPINION
This has been a bit of a lost season for West Ham United attacker Lucas Perez in a lot of ways, but he made sure to send a message loud and clear to manager Manuel Pellegrini on Saturday.
It’s rare for the former Arsenal man to get an opportunity these days, but he very much took his chance in the 2-2 draw with Leicester. After coming on in the closing stages he made a huge impact, blowing the Foxes away in an eye-opening display.
The polarising 30-year-old scored with a proper poacher’s goal, putting the Hammers back in front and seemingly steering them on course for victory until Harvey Barnes’s stoppage time equaliser.
That strike was extremely harsh on West Ham and on Perez, in particular. He had done his job to perfection and so he was very unlucky not to be on the winning side at the London Stadium.
However, he has surely left his manager with a big summer headache. Football London reported in January that the Hammers were open to offers for Perez after just a few months in east London. However, perhaps Pellegrini should now re-think his stance on the player.
When you see Perez play like this you wonder why he hasn’t gotten more of an opportunity this campaign. There’s no doubt that he’s good enough to make an impact at this level, it’s just that Pellegrini hasn’t seemed to fancy him for whatever reason.
With Andy Carroll almost certainly heading for the exit door and Marko Arnautovic’s future uncertain, perhaps it’s worth keeping Perez around and giving him a bit more game time moving forward. He certainly showed on Saturday that he can get the job done against Premier League opposition.
