It’s fair to say that both Arsenal supporters and Twitter erupted when reports suggesting Mahrez had agreed terms with the Gunners broke last week.
Following a rather dull weekend that hasn’t provided too much of an update, it’s allowed a bit of time for us to all calm down over the PFA Player of the Year.
The simple fact is that I don’t really need to give the 25-year-old an introduction, because he’s managed to do that himself following an amazing campaign.
His goals and assists helped Leicester to a first Premier League title, as well as attracting some intense interest from the European heavyweights this summer.
And after Arsene Wenger revealed his side were still “very active” in the market, many of us put two and two together in hope the winger would be featuring in all red by late August.
So we all know he’s got goals in the locker, but if Wenger is to land his man for the reported £42m then he could be getting quite a lot more for his money, as we’ve pointed out below.
1 – Competition
It sounds obvious, but Arsenal haven’t had a world-class winger out on the right hand side since Freddie Ljungberg and that really does say something.
Despite the high-profile names that feature in the forward positions for Arsenal, none of which playing out on the right hand side have shown they deserve a regular position.
This past season is enough to lay down the fact that nobody is good enough to make that right-wing their own, after all they were all replaced by a 20-year-old academy star.
Alex Iwobi burst onto the seen in 2016 but if Wenger thinks he can put his faith in the youngster all season then there’s no chance of us bringing silverware back to the Emirates.
Joel Campbell, The Ox, Theo Walcott; all of them were given a chance in the season, none of them managed to show us what they can do and we’re getting sick of waiting.
So where does Mahrez step in to the equation? Well, not only does it send a wake up call to those that I’ve already mentioned, but it gives Wenger a welcome relief.
Just like Alexis or Ozil, the winger would be one of the first names on the team-sheet week after week which tells us exactly who is in our best attacking line-up.
With positions locked down in the match-day XI, it provides nothing better to those wanting to get into the squad, and it won’t take long for Ox and Walcott to up their game.
Competition makes players better there’s no question about it, and with nobody safe in this team the mentality of these players suddenly becomes one of title winners.