Pepe must step up a gear if he is to feature in Arteta’s plans
Club is concerned about £72million record signing after a stuttering start to his Arsenal career,
The intimate nature of Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium, the smallest ground in the Premier League, made it possible to hear every barked instruction from Mikel Arteta during the Spaniard’s first game as Arsenal head coach.
There was certainly no holding back, with Arteta taking an especially vocal approach to his youngsters, Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson. In the second half on Boxing Day, Nelson was stationed on the right wing, directly in front of Arteta’s technical area. The 20-year-old was cajoled, encouraged, pushed wide, pulled inside and generally told where to be and when to be there. It was fascinating to watch, and it felt telling that, at the final whistle, Arteta put an arm around Nelson and started his individual post-match analysis within seconds of the game ending.
The attention Arteta gave Nelson brought to mind all those stories about the 37-year-old’s influence on Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane at Manchester City. Nelson is a similar age, playing with a similar style, in a similar position. The fact he started this first game of Arteta’s reign shows that the Spaniard clearly sees a player who can be developed and moulded into the sort of winger that he craves.
The key question, then, is whether the same can be said for Nicolas Pepe. Nelson’s place on the teamsheet was a show of faith in him, but was it also a reflection of Arteta’s lack of faith in Pepe, the club’s record signing who has endured such a patchy start to his first season in England?
Under three managers, Pepe has started just two of Arsenal’s past 10 matches in all competitions. His adaptation has been slower than expected, and it is now reaching the point of being a genuine concern for the club. There have been just two goals in the league, only one of which was from open play.
Unai Emery, the previous head coach, said this year that Pepe would need the same patience that Liverpool showed Fabinho last season. Fabinho, though, had started five of seven league games at this stage of 2018, and was well on the way to becoming one of Liverpool’s most important players. Pepe is considerably further behind in his own development.
There can be no questioning Pepe’s talent. Almost every time he plays, there is a moment of genuine quality which makes it clear why he cost £72million. A nutmeg on his home debut caused a groan of admiration around the Emirates, his two free-kicks against Vitoria Guimaraes were wonderfully executed and his recent goal at West Ham United was powerful and precise.
But there can also be sloppiness, with the ball and with his decisionmaking, and that inconsistency will frustrate Arteta as much as anyone as the Spaniard looks to build a system that works like clockwork.
“It was obviously a big change for him to come here from France,” said Arteta. “He found a team that, at that moment, was not performing at their best. The environment for him to settle was not ideal.
“It is not only about him. We are here to help him. If he is willing to learn, if he is willing to work hard, I am sure he has the potential to be top, absolutely top. Against Bournemouth [as a substitute] he showed in two or three actions how good he can be. But he has to be consistent.”
Arteta’s challenge to Pepe is on the training ground as much as the pitch. “If he trains well enough to convince me, then I have confidence in him,” he added, after accepting that Pepe would gain confidence only if he was given the opportunity to play more minutes in the first team.
The responsibility is not all on Pepe’s shoulders, however. The 24-year-old’s adaptation has been made harder by the total mess in midfield that has characterised Arsenal’s season so far, with players drifting all over the pitch and the team losing any sense of shape and structure. It has hardly been the ideal platform for Pepe to show his ability and the hope will be that Arteta’s tweaks to the shape, which were largely successful against Bournemouth, can provide a solid base for the attacking players.
“The overall structure, the way we play and approach the game, and the things we do on the pitch… we can’t demand attacking players to generate things just like this,” said Arteta. “We have to have the play sustained behind them, to tie everything together. We need to arrive in better positions as many times as possible for them to be able to create as many situations as we want.”
Under Frank Lampard, Chelsea have plenty of problems of their own. Pepe is clearly capable of causing more for them, on an individual level, but it says plenty about his struggles that it would be no surprise if Arteta turned back to Nelson rather than rely upon the most expensive player in Arsenal’s history.