GETTING TO THE ART OF THE MATTER
Boss lays it on line for Pepe
MIKEL ARTETA has a daunting list of problems to solve as manager of Arsenal.
Among them remains forging a reliable defence, trying to reinvigorate the fading ambition of Mesut Ozil (below), and acquiring an experienced central midfielder to replace Granit Xhaka.
All huge tests for a rookie manager at a major club with great expectations. There might not be swift or easy answers.
But what we can expect from Arteta immediately is an intense drive to develop the cast of talented, young attacking players in the Gunners’ squad.
It will come with the use of tough love, in the manner of his great mentor Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal’s expensive young French winger Nicolas Pepe has been the first to discover it.
In Arteta’s first match in charge, the mostly encouraging 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, he picked homegrown
Reiss Nelson, 20, in the starting line-up ahead of £73million
Ivory Coast star Pepe.
The Spanish boss vowed to offer a clean slate at Arsenal – and the selection of Reiss was in line with training-ground evidence.
Pepe was dropped, then used as a late substitute and might have some work left to do convincing the new gaffer.
Arteta said: “I think it was obviously a big change for Pepe to come here from France.
“He found a team which wasn’t performing at its best. The environment for him to settle wasn’t ideal. But we are here to help him.
“If he’s willing to learn, willing to work hard, I’m sure he has the potential to be absolutely top.
“Against Bournemouth, he showed in two or three moves how good he can be. But he has got to be consistent.
“The problem is that his confidence is only good if he plays. But I only have confidence in him if he trains well enough to convince me.
“So there has to be a mix of those two.”
Arteta was highly praised at Manchester City for his significant personal input on the training ground to fashion vast improvements in stars such as Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane.
Pepe, Nelson and others like Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka should relish the opportunity and learning challenge which lies ahead.
But Arsenal’s new boss also insisted that the rest of the team have a responsibility to provide the platform for Pepe and company to flourish. They can’t shine in a vacuum.
Arteta added: “The overall structure, the way we play and approach the game and the things that we do on the pitch have to be right too.
“We can’t demand attacking players generate things just like that. We must have play sustained behind them, to tie everything together.
“We need to arrive in many better positions, as many times as possible, for them to be able to create as many situations as we want.”
Arsenal, languishing mid-table, are at home today to London rivals Chelsea, who look likely to offer a stern test of a fragile Gunners defence.
Arsenal kept a high-line for free-kicks at Bournemouth, leaving them vulnerable to balls drifted in behind the defenders. But that is not a strategy Arteta is planning to change just yet.
“The deeper we go, the closer we are to the box,” he said.
“We are not the biggest team in the Premier League, so we have to try to defend as far as possible from our box – that means using a structure that can support these scenarios.”