The Mercurial Nicolas Pepe
At Lille, Nicolas Pepe looked to have the makings of a superstar. He finished the 2018-19 season with 22 goals and 11 assists, each the second-most in Ligue 1. In Europe’s top five leagues, the only other player to score more than 20 goals and provide more than 10 assists that season was Lionel Messi. Pepe seemed to have everything you’d want in a winger: pace, trickery, strength, and potency in front of goal. By the end of his final season at Lille, the eyes of Europe’s biggest clubs were on him. Arsenal eventually snapped him up, forking over £72 million, a club record, to secure the Ivorian on a five-year deal.
That price tag has haunted him for over 18 months now.
Pepe’s first season in north London saw him reckon with the most turbulent circumstances he had ever encountered in his career. Unai Emery would be sacked three months into the season. Freddie Ljungberg would serve as a caretaker until Mikel Arteta was eventually hired just before the end of 2019. A few months later, the Premier League season would grind to a halt, forced to do so by a once-in-a-century global pandemic. Arteta and several Arsenal players would contract the coronavirus. Training was virtual for weeks, with players essentially being given homework to do in order to stay match-ready. After a three-month hiatus, the season continued via Project Restart and the club ended on a high by lifting the FA Cup. Despite an unstable first campaign with the Gunners, Pepe finished with 8 goals and 10 assists in 42 appearances. His last assist of the season would set up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score the winner in the FA Cup final against Chelsea.
It was hoped that Pepe would be able to carry his good form from the cup final into this season. But before he played against Southampton in the FA Cup, he had scored only twice in 12 Premier League appearances and averaged a WhoScored rating of 6.30 over those matches. In eight of those 12 league matches, he came on off the bench. Midway through this run of mediocre form, Pepe saw a straight red card for needlessly headbutting Leeds United’s Ezgjan Alioski and served a three-match ban. Eventually, Bukayo Saka would be moved to the right flank, originally Pepe’s position, and excel. Heading into the new year, fans were drawing comparisons to Gervinho and wondering aloud whether Arsenal could move Pepe on in the summer.
There is plenty of blame for Pepe to shoulder here, of course. While he possesses spectacular talent, he certainly does not have the natural footballing brain that other players in the squad do. His tendency to cut inside onto his left foot is easily spotted by even the more pedestrian defenders in the English top flight. His defensive work rate, though it has improved, leaves much to be desired. But there are also several outside factors that have prevented Pepe from realizing his full potential in Arsenal colors.
Pepe is known at the club as a quiet, unassuming character. Gerard Lopez, the president of Lille, once told Sky Sports in reference to Pepe, “The more comfortable he gets at the club, the more he will make things happen”. Imagine, then, how uncomfortable Pepe must have been when Willian arrived at the club. Pepe had probably been the most influential player outside of Aubameyang at the end of the 2019-20 season. And yet, Arteta saw fit to bring in another right winger with a stature and reputation that eclipsed Pepe’s. To a player as withdrawn as he is, it sent the message that he wasn’t good enough, that his performances were not worth rewarding with trust. It’s not surprising if such an implication torched his confidence at the beginning of the season.
Another circumstance that has impacted Pepe’s return is how he was deployed to start the season. For much of Arteta’s tenure at the club, Arsenal’s attack has been lackluster. This season began with the team employing slow build-up play, few runs being made in the opposing team’s penalty box, and little creative play occurring in the final third. This unproductive offensive style saw Pepe often forced onto the touchline, instructed to do so in order to maintain width and help stretch the field. This, combined with Arsenal’s lack of a No. 10 at the time, resulted in Pepe being regularly isolated on the right, largely uninvolved as Arsenal focused their attacks on the left through Tierney, Saka, and Aubameyang. When he did receive the ball, Pepe was often left to beat multiple defenders on his own or otherwise forced to cut in on his left foot to shoot or cross. This didn’t work for the Ivorian. Pepe is a player who wants to play centrally and receive the ball ahead of him in space. The stagnant possession-based play Arsenal started the season with did not allow him to do that, and thus he was regularly stifled by opposing defense.
Pepe has now started in five consecutive matches, and has three goals in those games to show for it. Playing on the left, he and Saka on the right have regularly looked like the most threatening players on the field. One could not be blamed for asking if he should start over Aubameyang on the left flank for the foreseeable future. So, what’s changed?
The most obvious difference is that he now regularly plays on the left. While this alone might not be deciding factor of his brief renaissance, the new position has allowed him to do what he specializes in while also forcing him to innovate. Playing from the left and having Cedric (and soon, hopefully, Tierney) providing width at left-back has given Pepe the freedom to come inside and play more centrally. Instead of being stranded near the dugout, Arsenal’s No. 19 now finds himself regularly receiving touches in around the opposition’s penalty area, which is where he is most effective. Additionally, playing on the left has caused Pepe to become more unpredictable. He now has the option of playing outswinging crosses with his favored left foot, or cutting in onto his right and firing at goal. Pepe has demonstrated on multiple occasions now that the latter option is one for defenders to be wary of, having scored with such a strike against Wolves and come tantalizingly close to doing so again against Aston Villa.
Better service in the final third has also helped give Pepe new life at Arsenal. Emile Smith Rowe, an attacking midfielder who has shown a tendency and drift out to the flanks and combine with wide players, gives Pepe an outlet on the touchline and prevents him from being isolated against multiple defenders in a corner of the pitch. Additionally, Granit Xhaka has started passing the ball forward regularly with Thomas Partey alongside him. On multiple occasions, Xhaka has played Pepe centrally into the penalty area. One such pass assisted Pepe’s goal against Southampton in the Premier League.
But perhaps the most important reason behind Pepe’s change in fortunes is the attention Arteta is giving him. It is well-known that Arteta has felt the need to work individually with him on things such as attacking with his weaker foot. It is even rumored that Pepe is the player he spends the most time on at the training ground. As assistant manager at Manchester City, Arteta was credited by both Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane for improvement in the wingers’ performances. Perhaps Pepe is Arteta’s next project player. In any case, this continued focus on getting the best out of Pepe sends the winger the message that his manager believes in him. That boost of confidence, combined with the insights that Arteta surely has to share with Pepe, will hopefully have a positive impact on the player’s consistency moving forward.
Nicolas Pepe is a rather unpredictable player, in multiple senses. When put in the right positions, he has the talent to constantly keep defenders guessing as to what he’ll do. But his inconsistency prevents fans from ever being entirely sure which Pepe will show up on a given matchday. For this reason, members of the Arsenal faithful relentlessly bring up his transfer fee when he hasn’t played spectacularly — which, unfortunately, is often. It’s an understandable by-product of an era of clickbait and hot takes. But this approach fails to consider the reasons why a player who took France by storm struggled at Arsenal. It also fails to consider the kind of player Pepe is.
Some footballers are moments players. They do not produce consistently throughout a match, but are usually the most likely to pop up to make the critical difference. Aubameyang is such a player. He does not involve himself much in build-up play and scarcely touches the ball. This would result in many quiet match showings if it were not for his tendency to be in the right places at the right times to grab a goal or two. Pepe is also a moments player. The only difference is, he wants the ball. Whereas Aubameyang prefers to be on the end of moves, Pepe tries to be part of attacks from start to finish. As a high-touch player, many of Pepe’s moments come from taking risks with the ball — trying to bend one into the far corner from 20 yards out, attempting to nutmeg one defender and then bamboozle another with stepovers, or hitting an early cross from outer regions of the final third. When these actions come off, Pepe looks like the best player on the pitch. However, such is the low probability of these gambles that he very often looks clumsy, arrogant, or just plain silly.
It is this willingness to take risks, to be brave on the ball, that makes Pepe such an intriguing player. His courage gives him a constant baseline potential to produce special moments. Such a trait cannot be coached, only nurtured. Arteta likely sees that. The trick now is to make him better at the basics in order for him to more regularly accomplish the spectacular. If that can be achieved and Pepe can be mentored into consistent production, it would result in the most important contribution of all: goals. And a goal involvement or two per game is always worth a handful of losses of possession, especially for an attacking player.
Perhaps that isn’t worth £72 million. After all, Pepe still makes poor decisions with the ball. His touch is sometimes a bit clumsy. His in-game awareness must improve. But if those flaws could be coached out of him by a manager experienced in working with wingers, if those courageous attempts at changing a match could be more regularly successful, if he could produce at a critical moment to fire Arsenal to glory in the future, perhaps it would at least come close.
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