Nicolas Pepe repays Mikel Arteta’s faith in him with an impressive display.
Nicolas Pepe played arguably his best game for Arsenal in the Premier League against Manchester United. The Ivorian scored a goal and made one from a corner kick as Arsenal earned their first win under Mikel Arteta.
The team has improved since the former Arsenal captain was named their new manager and it appeared only a matter of time before things would get better.
After the game, Pepe revealed that Arteta pulled him aside and had a one-on-one conversation with him before the match about his readiness for the match with United.
He would go on to have a good game thanks to Mikel Arteta’s man-management skill.
Pepe told RMC per the Daily Mail: ‘I had a discussion with the coach this morning and he told me I was going to start and asked if I felt ready and stuff like that.
‘I told him I felt ready. I showed tonight that I was ready.
‘As well, today it is my mother’s birthday, I score today, so it is only positive for me and the team.’
He also praised their new system under Arteta as the Spaniard has improved their game since he came.
‘This one feels a lot better. We scored twice, we conceded zero goals. This will really do a lot for everyone’s confidence levels.
‘We are doing a lot, a lot of video during training in order to perform well during the match. Today we performed well, we were solid defensively, we were good going forward.
‘It is all new for us. A new system, new instructions. We are adapting quickly.
‘That has been seen in the last three matches, even though we did not win, we were very good, we were just missing the victory, which we were able to do tonight. We need to continue like this.
‘Now we have to go on a run to get to this top four that we need to do.’
It was a great performance from Pepe and the good thing is that there will be more to come, he is just too talented to remain mediocre and the more game time he gets the more he will adapt and improve.