Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe was credited with an assist for Calum Chambers’ opening goal against Leeds last night but his overall performance has come under scrutiny once again.
The Ivorian played the full 90 minutes, but rarely threatened down the right flank, failing to beat his man as well as miscontrolling the ball on more than one occasion.
For £72m, Pepe has clearly failed to live up to his club-record price tag, and it seems most supporters on Twitter are now willing to sell the 26-year-old:
We should just cut our losses and move on away from him, just gotta accept we got scammed by Lille
— 🇸🇰 (@MonsignorBilly) October 26, 2021
He dropped a stinker in that first half.
— Seun Dudu🦍 (@dudubody) October 26, 2021
Think it’s time we be honest, he’s been an awful signing and the fact we paid as much as we did for him is rather embarrassing. Cut ties in the summer and hope we can sell him to someone who’s director of football is blind.
— Adam Cooper (@AJ_Cooper95) October 26, 2021
This is probably the worst I’ve seen him.
— BOXAFC🔴⚪️ (@yagunnersya16) October 26, 2021
Whenever he receives the ball the defenders ain’t even putting extra effort to tackle the ball from him as they know he himself will lose control of the ball if he keeps it for 2 seconds more lol
— AFC Sparta (@FplSparta) October 26, 2021
Pepe has been so bad man 😭😭 We need to sell him before it’s too late. Guy has no right foot
— Kazuma (@crapzuma) October 26, 2021
Pepe can’t even trap the ball. Can’t make a decent connection too
— Naija boy/ Ezigbo nwafo (@ezigbonwafo) October 26, 2021
He will never come good still at Arsenal. He can’t deliver anything on the right wing, that’s why Smithrowe has shifted there
— Tokyo Bee (@Bee1Tokyo) October 26, 2021
Predictability has been his most worrying trait… He needs to add more to his locker.
— ObN (@nwaoguO) October 27, 2021
Our gamble for Pepe didn’t pay off. We can offload him now and find proper replacement.
— Mikel Kilasi. (@MimiKilasi) October 27, 2021
It’s hard to see where Pepe can go from here. After being criticised for his display against Crystal Palace, he was dropped to the bench for the Aston Villa game. This was the perfect opportunity for him to show manager Mikel Arteta that he deserves to be recalled, but he flattered to deceive. He may now face a long spell out of the side, especially as Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka are performing at a much higher level than him.
