• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

What would you do with Pepe?

  • Keep him for the foreseeable future

  • Give him one more season to prove himself

  • Sell if you can get a significant fee, keep otherwise

  • Sell at any price


Results are only viewable after voting.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
Saka. Arteta has picked him ahead of Pepe more often than not.

This isn't true at all. Pepe plays on the right wing. If this was the case and indeed Saka was preferred ahead of Pepe, how is it possible that Saka only started 2 or 3 games under Arteta on that side?

@Macho @Trilly
He was in and out of the team until we reached the finals in the cup under Arteta pretty much. Saka had started ahead of him less than I thought after checking the numbers but it’s still a considerable amount (7/19 matches on the bench) if you include other youngsters.

I think you are confusing Saka starting a lot of games as him ousting Pepe. They play on opposite sides. The only games I can remember where Pepe was available and Saka started RW was City away and Leicester at home. The Leicester game I'm even sure Pepe missed training prior to it as his wife was in labour so he wasn't probably even 100% fit.

So from my memory Saka was preferred ahead of Pepe for the grand total of 1 game. If you give me examples of other games I'm ready to be proven wrong.
 

Fewtch

Özil at 10 And Emery Out
31 appearances and 9 of them being subs isn’t really what I would call being kept out the side tbh I dunno what to tell you. I agree with being in and out - particularly under Emery. A bit of rotation under Arteta but kept out by 18 year olds simply wasn’t the case.

Kolasinac or Torreira are better examples of players being kept out the side by others performances. Kolasinac was more of a direct victim of both Saka and Tierney’s performances than Pepe.

Saka and Martilleni who perhaps had better overall seasons mostly figured on the left.
9 subs and he sat on the bench 6 times overall. I think we just disagree on what “takes him out of the team” like you said in your original post means and I made the mistake of overestimating how much Saka was part of that.
 

Fewtch

Özil at 10 And Emery Out
This isn't true at all. Pepe plays on the right wing. If this was the case and indeed Saka was preferred ahead of Pepe, how is it possible that Saka only started 2 or 3 games under Arteta on that side?



I think you are confusing Saka starting a lot of games as him ousting Pepe. They play on opposite sides. The only games I can remember where Pepe was available and Saka started RW was City away and Leicester at home. The Leicester game I'm even sure Pepe missed training prior to it as his wife was in labour so he wasn't probably even 100% fit.

So from my memory Saka was preferred ahead of Pepe for the grand total of 1 game. If you give me examples of other games I'm ready to be proven wrong.
Why did you ignore the last sentence of my 2nd post?
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
Why did you ignore the last sentence of my 2nd post?

I was mainly responding to you claiming an 18 year old pretty much took Pepe out of the team. Your last 2 sentences seemed you was shifting the goal posts somewhat. After all you can't just add numerous players together and then claim it is still a considerable amount while still sticking to your original claim.
 
Last edited:

Fewtch

Özil at 10 And Emery Out
I was mainly responding to you claiming an 18 year old pretty much took Pepe out of the team. Your last 2 sentences seemed you was shifting the goal posts somewhat. After all you can't just add numerous players together and then claim it is still a considerable amount while still sticking to the original point.
Did I shift the goalposts or did I admit that I was wrong about saka? My point is that he’s been kept out of the starting 11 by youngsters a lot under Arteta which is already worse than a 30 year old Willian doing keeping him out of the team.
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
My point is that he’s been kept out of the starting 11 by youngsters a lot under Arteta..

That wasn't your point at all.

An 18 year old who mainly plays as a left winger has pretty much already done this.

Saka. Arteta has picked him ahead of Pepe more often than not.

This is a new point. Perhaps it would have been better if you raised this on a separate post rather than fitting in on posts that reply to the original claim. Hence why I said moving the goal posts.

Anyway for what is worth I do think Willian has the real potential to limit Pepe's time on the pitch. It is a long season though. Plenty of minutes for both of them.
 

Fewtch

Özil at 10 And Emery Out
That wasn't your point at all.





This is a new point. Perhaps it would have been better if you raised this on a separate post rather than fitting in on posts that reply to the original claim. Hence why I said moving the goal posts.

Anyway for what is worth I do think Willian has the real potential to limit Pepe's time on the pitch. It is a long season though. Plenty of minutes for both of them.
:lol: It doesn’t matter if it was just Saka or Saka and Nelson/Nketiah/Martinelli who played ahead of Pepe. My point, which was that Pepe has already been dropped for worse players than Willian, still stands.
 

Kav

Established Member
Yet he started the important matches during the end of last season. That shows that Arteta trust him when it comes to the big ones.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
They'll probably have periods of keeping each other out of the side because from what I've heard from Chelsea fans Willian can be frustrating. There also isn't anything Willian did against Fulham that I would say Pepe couldn't do and there were some moments where Willian had 1v1s in the box which would be almost a guaranteed shot on target for my boy.

I think/hope Arteta will identify games where Pepe's skillset will be more useful even if it doesn't make us as fluid. Maybe that's where Aouar comes in.

I know it's only 1 game but Willian vs Fulham was way more direct than Pepe has been for us. Like he was taking the ball and running straight to the Fulham box or out wide to cross it in, he knew what he was doing everytime. Pepe I feel like just dribbled without intention, you can just see the difference in experience.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
@Macho @Trilly
He was in and out of the team until we reached the finals in the cup under Arteta pretty much. Saka had started ahead of him less than I thought after checking the numbers but it’s still a considerable amount (7/19 matches on the bench) if you include other youngsters.
According to transfer market Saka has played right wing two times. That sounds about right as well.

Saka being on the pitch but not in Pepe’s position isn’t Saka starting over him.
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
Not worried just yet. Give it maybe 20 games if he's only made say 5 starts that is not good. I feel like hes a confidence player. So talented but he needs a definitive starting spot.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Not long to make an impact but definitely needs work on timing. Some really good, forceful dribbles were spoiled by holding onto the ball too long and taking too many touches. Talented but needs a bit of efficiency.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Needs to start otherwise I can’t really see him working here.

A bit surprised the progress made at the end of last season hasn’t been built on.
 

sdotzdot

Established Member
He’ll be doing the same thing all season, he’s a limited footballer.

And what he’s good at he’s not even really good at. I said it last season but all the warning signs were there and if we were ruthless we would have cut our losses before the value drops for him even further next summer.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
Forget the price tag. This guy doesn't leave me expectant. If he drives forward, you know he'll probably lose it. He's started strolling back after losing the ball. The work ethic has dropped off-he should be busting a gut. His stats are good but he's not adding to our overall game to make our life easier. With him, Kola and a dry midfield, its like playing with 8 men.
 

TakeChillPill

Established Member
Will be sold or loaned next season. Can't believe we signed him for £70m. Definitely not a arteta or Wenger style player. Reminds me of gervinho with worse dribbling.
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
I really have faith he could be amazing because he has so many good tools. Dribbling and finishing are top tier. Set pieces and long shots.

I big him up all the time but I worry about Arteta not selecting him and what that means he's showing in training in terms of desire and graft.
 

dashsnow17

Doesn’t Rate Any Of Our Attackers
Trusted ⭐
If you compare him to the player we nearly signed instead of him - Zaha - he comes off poorly, because he doesn't have the power that Zaha has. A more useful comparison is Mahrez. Obviously he's nowhere near Mahrez, but they're both sort of wispy and skilful wingers. He should study Mahrez and try to model his game on him.
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
If you compare him to the player we nearly signed instead of him - Zaha - he comes off poorly, because he doesn't have the power that Zaha has. A more useful comparison is Mahrez. Obviously he's nowhere near Mahrez, but they're both sort of wispy and skilful wingers. He should study Mahrez and try to model his game on him.

Thing I don't get is he scored loads of goals running in behind and being a sort of wing forward yet we/he keep playing him as a right midfielder on the touchline
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
He needs to stop dribbling into crowds without a plan. Get it out his feet more, whether it’s a pass or a shot.

He needs to contribute more when we don’t have the ball. Things he’s not gonna get to grips with playing 15-20 mins.

The way we play our right wingers is weird anyways - they aren’t that involved compared to our left side, regardless of whoever plays there.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts+

Top Bottom