According to the Mirror, Mikel Arteta has outlined his plans to improve club-record signing Nicolas Pepe.
As per BBC Sport, the Gunners parted with a record fee of £72m to sign the Ivorian star from Lille last summer.
The 24-year-old has scored four goals and registered six assists from 24 Premier League appearances so far this season.
The ace has primarily been deployed as a right winger, playing into the ace’s tendency to cut in on his left foot.
Defenders appear to have nullified Pepe’s contributions recently by showing the star onto his weaker right foot.
Arteta spoke about making the attacker less predictable:
“It’s part of his development,”
“He needs to open more doors to be more unpredictable for the opponent and give more options as well offensively to us.”
“He’s working on it, he will improve, he will get better. He’s got the talent, an immense quality and he’s willing to do it.”
The Mirror also report that Arteta will work one-on-one with Pepe to improve his play on the wing:
“I’ll show him footage of what we want and on the training ground I will make him defend in situations where he is full-back and I am the winger.
“You have to feel the moment when the ball is here where you are weak and depending on the step that you take, how that effects the opponent every time, where the spaces are for the strikers, where the strikers want the ball in certain areas, it’s a process.”
The Gunners will be hoping that Pepe can start to round off his game soon as they hope to seriously contend for a Champions League spot this season.
Pepe has shown that he has the ability to take on almost any player in the league, the star’s end product does leave a lot to be desired for however.