Nicolas Pepe has recently found himself warming the bench for Arsenal, but Football.London‘s Bailey Keogh believes it is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who is at fault.
The Gunners started the term in terrible form, losing to each of Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City without finding a single goal in that time, before earning consecutive 1-0 victories over Norwich and Burnley.
While Pepe started all of those five that he was available for(missed the loss to Man City due to illness), he is only credited with a single assist this term, with no goals as of yet, and has since found himself dropped to the bench.
He is now expected to struggle to break into the team ahead of the current crop of Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka, while Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli, Folarin Balogun and Alexandre Lacazette will also be hoping to challenge for places also.
Keogh insists that Pepe’s demotion to the bench was unfair however, and down to the struggles of his team-mates, with his chance creation statistic showing the team’s lack of goals to be others fault.
The report goes as far as to name Aubameyang’s struggles in front of goal as the reason why the Ivory Coast international has now lost his place in the team, with our second-most creative player Saka needing 40% more time on the field statistically to create each chance.
Do you believe that Pepe deserves more playing time to prove his worth to the team?
Patrick