When you look back at the men who've donned the number nine for Arsenal in recent years, you'll see Perez doesn't have much to live up to
"Arsenal's number nine! Arsenal's, Arsenal's number nine!"
Will Gunners fans finally be able to belt that chant out with pride following the signing of Lucas Perez?
They'll certainly hope so, because they've not been able to do so for the past 17 years.
Since Nicolas Anelka left Highbury for Real Madrid in 1999, seven separate players have donned the number nine jersey and almost every single one of them has been a spectacular failure.
Here, we take a look at each and every one of them.
Davor Suker (1999-2000)
A world-class striker at his best… but he only started eight Premier League games for the Gunners.
Francis Jeffers (2001-2004)
Four goals in 22 Premier League games over THREE YEARS.
Arsene Wenger's famous "fox in the box", who ended up bearing closer resemblance to a frog in a paper bag.
Jose Antonio Reyes (2004-2006)
The Spaniard joined Arsenal in what was then a club-record £17.5million transfer fee in 2004 but scored just 23 times in two-and-a-half seasons before joining Real Madrid on a season-long loan in 2006-07.
He joined Atletico permanently the following summer.
Julio Baptista (2006-2007)
The Brazilian joined Arsenal on a season-long loan from Real Madrid as part of the deal which saw Reyes go the other way.
He scored just 10 times in 35 appearances for Arsene Wenger's side, although he did memorably net four times in a 6-3 victory at Liverpool in the League Cup.
Eduardo (2007-10)
To be fair, Eduardo was beginning to show real glimpses of quality when injury effectively ended his Arsenal career.
He'd scored four goals and assisted three in seven appearances before Birmingham's Martin Taylor snapped his leg during a match in February 2008.
The Croat never looked likely to return to that form when he made his return 12 months later, scoring just nine more goals for Arsenal in 36 appearances before joining Shakhtar Donetsk.
Park Chu-Young (2011-2012)
He made just one eight-minute long substitute appearance during his three-year Arsenal career. Shambles.
Lukas Podolski (2012-2015)
A cult hero. A social media genius. A fan favourite. In many respects, the German made a significant impact at Arsenal.
Sadly, as a goalscorer who was regularly shunted out on to the wing (danke, Herr Wenger), that impact wasn't felt very often on the pitch.
