Nicolas Pepe Joined Arsenal in the summer to much fanfare because of his exploits in the French Ligue 1 with Lille last season.
The Gunners actually decided to sign him instead of Wilfried Zaha who Unai Emery wanted because the Crystal Palace winger is a Premier League regular and had been shinning in the competition.
Pepe joined Arsenal in a record-breaking deal, but he hasn’t had the best of seasons. He has shown flashes of his brilliance in some games, but he didn’t do so much under Unai Emery.
He has become a better player under Mikel Arteta and one part of his game that has improved drastically is his defending.
One of his best game this year has been Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Newcastle. He scored and provided assists for some of the goals that day.
However, it was his defensive contribution which impressed Arteta in that game.
The winger was running commentary on the game with Alexandre Lacazette recently, and after making a tackle in the game, Lacazette echoed his manager’s comments about Pepe’s defending in that game.
“Great tackle by Nicolas Pepe,” he said. “He seems to have made good progress in that department.” To which Pepe nods his head and replies with “Exactly.”
