Nicolas Pepe has earned criticism from Alan Hutton for his performance, as Arsenal was knocked out of the FA Cup against Southampton today.
The Ivorian has been missing in the Arsenal starting XI for much of the last two months as Mikel Arteta’s side returned to form.
He was brought back into the starting XI alongside Willian for the game against the Saints as the Gunners sought to progress to the next round of the competition.
He, however, put in another uninspiring display that shows why he may be benched by Arteta for the rest of the season and no one will complain.
He is one of Arsenal’s set-piece takers, and he has sometimes delivered good ones.
But in the match against the Saints, he put in a terrible show and his set-pieces were well off when the Gunners needed him to be at his best.
Hutton was unimpressed by what he had seen and said the winger was poor and wasted good chances for the team with his deliveries.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Pepe’s corner was so disappointing, it’s a chance when they get up the pitch and he hits the first man – it’s so poor. The delivery from Arsenal has been poor all day, he just lifted that over the bar and he needs to do a lot better than that.”
Maybe Pepe should go on loan and see if he can salvage his career that obviously was doing better than it is now.
Who would pay a £10M loan fee? Coz that’s what we pay Lille every year in installments for Pepè. Then there are his wages still to be paid. NOBODY would take him.
What we pay Lille is his transfer fee, not his wages. The fee is our problem, nobody elses. A loan is a loan and the way it is structured has nothing to do with what he cost or what he earns come to that. It is a separate agreement.
He is being picked. He had a decent game. He was the best of the starters. Created 4 or 5 chances. Tracked back. Won a few tackles. Linked well with players around him. Certainly was not his fault that too often his teammates ‘threw away’ the ball.
…plus on today’s showing by the players around him, he had poor players to work with. They gave away the ball too damn often.
well said, glad to see fans still watching the objectively
Pepe although has been disappointing for a long time is becoming a scapegoat in some games
We are not just good enough in set pieces, when was the last time we score from corner kick or something similar. this should be our plan B to get goals in cagey games but our tall players are just unreunreliable, see Holding fluffing chances
They played the team we will play on Tuesday.
We judge after that.
To make up for Tierney’s absence today, why didn’t we use Pepe on the left wing or through the middle? We don’t seem to realize the entire league have figured out how to defend against Pepe on the right. And very soon they will learn how to lock down on ESR too. As a team we need to learn to be more creative and less predictable.
I think Arteta is hanging him out to dry on the right.
Why play William at all?
Why play Cedric on the left when he’s been performing on the right, instead of Niles. All was Arteta’s fault.
Reggie,
You do realized Mikel is playing him as an inverted winger right?
He only has one foot, his left and can’t score goals from the left.
If Mikel plays him centrally, he can’t hold up the ball, loses possession easily, and slows down the attack.
The dude is barely there..
Sell him at a loss, not a good fit for the EPL!
You do realise when he has played for us on the left he actually played better. If Arteta sees him as an inside out winger, then at least give him the confidence to do that and set the team up to play that way. Playing and inverted winger on the right a non winger on the left and a right footed left back is stupid and is sending players down blind alleys.
Pepe is very frustrating because he has talent and keeps showing signs that he could still unlock more potential and become more like the player we all wanted him to be. I guess his price tag & Arsenal’s desire to get a return on investment will afford him more chances than he otherwise would have got, so I just hope he still comes good. It’s hanging in the balance and needs some progress soon.
Arteta is the cost of pepe’s poor form
pepe was getting better till he brought in willian and dropped pepe on the bench, I can remember arteta saying if he (pepe) makes one mistake he is relegated to europa game now my question is why did he relegated willian after many errors, pepe was just not his kind of player, but when you don’t have anyone better you build on the one you already have, pepe’s problem only was not scoring goal but he started improving in the europa games why still leave him on the bench, arteta is a failure he has no good plans to rebuild arsenal he can only work with an already made team
LET US CUT TO THE CHASE . Pepe needs to leave our club completely and not be loaned or used in a vain attempt to get him to finally be of use He will never be of any real use as he is too lazy, too one footed and has no dynamism or determination and is clearly just going through the motions while collecting his unwarranted huge wages.
He is a dreadful buy and we should not waste more time. He needs to be sold ASAP for whatever we can get for this waste of £72 mill and at least recover a little from that disastrous waste of all that money. And learn our lesson!
And yet you complain constantly it’s Kroenke’s fault for not spending big.
Arteta’s acquisition of Willian was a clear indication of his desire to get rid of Pepe. Willian has started the first fourteen games, playing an average of 70 minutes per game, while Pepe has come off the bench to play an average of 20 minutes per game in the premier league. But, Willian has failed him miserably and he asks the fans to be patient with an experience premier league professional, while, he accepts no mistake from Pepe, who comes in at the end of games under a lot of pressure and is expected to change the fortunes of the team for the better. In order words, what Willian could not do with fresh legs around him in 75 minutes, Pepe is expected to do and more in 15 minutes with tired legs around him. Judge for yourself.
Im afraid thats how Arteta manages, he isnt fair and that will be a problem in the future. He doesn’t do what he says and people will see through him. There are murmurings that quite a few players aren’t happy with the way he manages. If correct that will fester and come out in the future.