There is no doubt that Nicolas Pepe came to Arsenal with a massive reputation and matching price tag, but it is fair to say that he made an underwhelming start to his Premier League career.
A lot of fans were simply baffled why Mikel Arteta regularly chose Willian in his starting line-up at the expense of Pepe, but towards the end of the season the Frenchman seemed to have found his form yet again.
Pepe will hopefully next season kick on and prove his worth, but let us just have a look at some of his highlights from the 2020/21 season and hope we see these skills a lot more often in the next campaign…
Pepe has cost the club 86 million in transfer fee and salaries in just two seasons.
30 goals and 20 assists should be Pepe’s minimum production each season.
So he has failed abysmally so far.
His current value has decreased 30 million from his 2019 value.
He can only get better.
Actually 18.6 million might be nearer the mark considering he is being bought on the never, never.🙂
Correct, we are paying over 5 years, so good return so far for 18.6 mil.
Lol Wyoming I guess you dont like the guy! Top combined goal/assist man last season (Kane) had 37, Second (Fernandes) had 30. But you expect 50 every season or Pepe is a flop?
You probably also don’t think he is improving? I think you will find that virtually every player on the planet is valued less this season btw
You know that Pépé has nothing to do with the fee Arsenal paid for him so it is pointless to keep bringing it on when discussing his performances the failure comes from those who agreed to pay 72M but if he keeps improving and performing for us and ends up staying say 8 9 10 years at the club it might even turn out to be a good deal who knows??
Arteta contributed to his underwhelming performance. It was like when Pepe does better he will be benched the following match and William will take his place. The only thing that helped Pepe was the total flop of William. It meant the rise of Pepe.
If Arteta had kept faith with Pepe may be we would have been in Europe.
Short memory. Pepe was poor in the prem at the beginning of the season. Fans were all calling for him to be axed. Given that he improved enormously when brought onto the left flank after Christmas – given his enormous improvement – it would more logical to see Arteta’s influence as incredibly positive. Haters always gonna find a way to hate.
not yet, but he is showing that he might be a solid investment. If the end of the year is the new norm he will be worthwhile.
The reason his good figures were not better is down to Arteta playing Willian for 15 games producing NOTHING AT ALL.
Pepe would have improved much better if Arteta didn’t bench him anytime he did well. I still feel we didn’t play to his strength early this season. It was easy to defend against him because opposition defenders double mark him. He wasn’t getting enough space in the field to play. See how mancity style open up the game for mahrez to play.
Two players we aren’t playing to their strengths under Arteta and should be are Pepe and Auba.