Nicolas Pepe needs support and not to be overly criticised.
Nicolas Pepe is one of the more criticised members of the Arsenal starting XI and people forget most of the time that he just moved to England.
After breaking our transfer record to sign him, I can forgive fans for expecting so much so soon from him despite this season being his first in England.
Pepe has shown flashes of his quality, but the Ivorian lacks the consistency to help Arsenal this season, however, it is still very early days.
One game that probably sums up the positive part of his spell at Arsenal this season was when he came off the bench to score two freekicks against Vitoria Guimaraes.
Most of the other time he is being criticized for either ghosting through games, misplacing passes or missing a goal.
For all the criticisms that have been levelled at him, I think that Pepe deserves more credit than he is getting.
We have to remember that the French League isn’t as strong as the Premier League, yet Pepe has managed to do well enough to have scored five goals and provided four assists in his first season here.
Jesse Lingard doesn’t have half of those numbers, while James Maddison has been involved in just three more goals than Pepe has.
For me, Pepe has a lot more to offer to Arsenal and with proper management from Mikel Arteta, he will become an important player for Arsenal.
There will be a time to judge him harshly but that time is not here yet, right now he needs our support and not condemnation.
An article from Jacob B
Unless Pepe’s starts performing consistently asap, Arsenal have to sell him at the end season if they truly want to learn from the mistakes of the previous regime.
Big clubs don’t hang about years on end hoping to FINALLY get some quality from their players. They act quick! Like Pepe, another huge signing at the time in Ozil had a poor first season, we hung on to him for another 6 years, and look what we got in return!
I love Pepe! I think all clubs need a player like him, that have the skill to think outside the box, but if there’s no consistency, then they’re useless.
Arsenal as a team this season hasn’t been near consistent, just sell the whole players instead
Agreed but we also shouldn’t judge a player to quickly…
Manu did that with Di Maria, Depay…now they’re playing amazing football
I completely agree. It’s a tough decision because he clearly has huge potential.
judge a player too quickly its February ? The season Is over in 3 months how many years should we give him ?
Exactly!! 👍
Double exactly!! I’ve been saying we should renege on the deal to sign him, and Lillé can do whatever they like!
Many fans look at stats and think that they know what is wrong and where its wrong.Like the ones who think they understand laca and ozil.
Pepe is a very good player and he should be given time,that is fine.But should he be given chances in the PL to improve or should we start him in the cup games and the Europa league is upto MA.He clearly sees what players are doing the job asked from them.And its time for us to TRUST THE PROCESS.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
I trust MA and i will back him
COYG
All these players are so good, yet are producing nothing, not scoring, and we are dropping points. Think you need to wake up and see this Arsenal team is not very good. We have one man carrying our entire attack.
I assume you are joking QD?. Pepe is a real talent but unless he applies himself and works hard off the ball he will never fulfil his undoubted ability. Arteta is no doubt working hard with Pepe to address this problem and hopefully he will make a real contribution next season.
He’s currently flopping, let’s be honest. He’s not done anything to change his game and adapt to the league either. Somebody needs to start telling him how to make better decisions when has has the ball. Because dribbling past the defense seems to be the only thing ever on his mind. Maybe we will see one or two players per season even accomplish such a feat. This is not France, and he has yet to understand this.
Far too early, i remember a certain Thierry Henry struggling for a good few months before the penny dropped. Its all about what he can do not what he is doing. If people can’t see the ability is there then i don’t know what to say. Be patient.
I like Pepe and think he will come good but right now he is so much like Gervinho and we all know how that ended. I am surprised by some people who say they should give him a chance though cuz they were some of the people who butchered Iwobi after providing 9 assists and 4 goals in a season. Lol.
That being said if Arteta can work on a juvenile sterling surely he can work on pepe
Well said Gizzle… majority of the fans bashed and bashed Iwobi. I guess they forgot he was the teams most improved player in Emery’s first season. A lot of questions about his end product… 9 assists 4 goals. how many have we got from ozil in 2 seasons? I heard Reiss Nelson for Iwobi… jeez what a joke that was.
Imagine Iwobi as a tool in Arteta’s hands? I’m his favorite position?
I still believe selling Iwobi was a great mistake or purely commercial for a club that lacked real vision.
Pepe’s has been doing great for the number of matches and minutes he has done for us. Let’s support him through one preseason at least ( he hasn’t done any preseason bonding with the team ).
Arsenal fans have turned to mourninho – always moaning about nothing. There are other people we should get rid of before even thinking of Pepe who has done well imo.
Let us not in a hurry be the next team to commit an error that will definitely produce another Mhmd Sala.
well, madrid should also sell Harzard at the end of this season. he’s not been performing.
Pepe is young and he’s had little top flight experience, he was fast-tracked. It’s the equivalent of an academy player going from there to the PL in the space of two seasons. If he came up from our academy instead of the so called 70m, would you still talk as you have.
Forget the money, he’s one of our prospects, Pepe, Nelson, Saka, Martinelli, Maitland, Rowe, Bola, Guendouzi, Saliba, Tierney, Nketiah. Get behind them!!!
Just like we could bring in 70m – 90m for Saka, 50m – 60m for Guendouzi, 150m – 170m for Martinelli. These are our prospects, forget the money, these guys are going to bond and then grow, as will our aspirations, we have a bright future. The future is soon, the future is The Arsenal. I can see some changes in the works that will try to bring back some of the old Highbury magic, I can’t say much as of now but there could be something in the works when everyone involved is bringing their ideas together.
..and maybe soon Gueye and Upamecano ..we’ll see.