Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

[Trilly]

That is exactly how Saka started and got a spot in the team. That is how ESR got into the team.

Stop lying for no reason, weirdo.

 

[Trilly]

First, you say Arteta should drop Pepe because of his performance, but now, Auba shouldn't be dropped with even worse performances and you will just ignore your own argument for dropping Pepe, and you bring logic into that
If you wanna have a dumb discussion where you override your own arguments, please, drop logic if that's the case.

This forum just keeps giving, LOVE IT!

He’s quickly becoming one of the worst posters on the forum. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt but there’s no stopping El Paragrapho once he’s on a roll.

 

[Trilly]

Some of you are quite pathetic in all honestly. The entire fan base has seen him play well over the last month, even his biggest haters have had to stay away from this thread in recent weeks and sources from the club (yes the actual Arsenal FC) have come out and said he’s had a very good few recent weeks.

Yet you crawl out of the woodwork picking holes at the first meh performance in weeks (a performance that 99/100 times ends with a goal and assist) talking about ‘this is why Willian should start over him’. Some of you must have genuinely celebrated when ESR stopped him from scoring a certain goal. Freaks.

 

[Wiggins]

Bellendarin playing behind him can't help at all.

 

[Gunners1616]

It's hard not to think about the 80M euros price tag when it comes to Pepe.

His stats are horrible for that price, 5 goals 0 assist' in 20 PL games this season... (and 5 goals in 31 PL games last season). It's possible that even Gervinho was more efficient.

He has good moments but he is just not consistent in the quality of his plays. He always comes back inside, he has no right foot, not very strong on the ball and loses possession way too easily.

Clearly we got ripped off by Lille here. In the future i only see him as a squad player, nothing more because he just not consistent/talented enough. Martinelli, Saka, ESR, Ødegaard all seems to have a higher potentiel. At some point we have to start thinking about cutting our losses...

 

[scytheavatar]

First, you say Arteta should drop Pepe because of his performance, but now, Auba shouldn't be dropped with even worse performances and you will just ignore your own argument for dropping Pepe, and you bring logic into that
If you wanna have a dumb discussion where you override your own arguments, please, drop logic if that's the case.

This forum just keeps giving, LOVE IT!

Whether Auba should be dropped depends on whether you think Lacazette or Martinelli or anyone else will do a better job........... I personally think Auba should be dropped but others will disagree. But I think it is hard to argue playing Pepe provides more for us than what Saka/ESR/Martinelli/Willian can give us. Right now Pepe has yet to prove himself to be more than a luxury signing.

 

[Maybe]

Whether Auba should be dropped depends on whether you think Lacazette or Martinelli or anyone else will do a better job........... I personally think Auba should be dropped but others will disagree. But I think it is hard to argue playing Pepe provides more for us than what Saka/ESR/Martinelli/Willian can give us. Right now Pepe has yet to prove himself to be more than a luxury signing.

Pepe is not in a position to prove himself because he would need to play constantly over a period of time, which never happened since he joined the club.
My problem is with the double standards that the manager is having when players like Willian, Bellerin and Auba are getting more game time because of their status/history even though they are underperforming for the whole season, while some will get dropped if they lose the ball or miss a chance.

Could Martinelli bring more than Auba, could Pepe score 15 goals a season if they play constantly? It's possible, but nobody will test it because it's easier to play guys who have the bigger status. You can't build your status if you are on the bench most of the time/all the time.

Numbers are showing that Pepe can score that amount of goals, he is always involved when he plays and even on a bad day like yesterday, his goal was canceled by ESR, and against Burnely his shot was cleared off the line, and so on. Willian had like 3 shots for the whole season, playing as a winger, which is probably less than Holding and Gabriel, but the guy still plays because he was once a good player for Chelsea.

 

[Oxeki]

Yeah, just when I thought he was starting to show some form and become a decent player for us, there's this. Looked like the shocking Pepe of old, really can't complain about Arteta not playing him continuously when he puts in performances like this..

And what was wrong with this performance? He wasn't bad neither was he excellent. It's not like the manager did him any favour by deploying a Midfield trio of Ceballos, Xhaka and Elneny. Inspite of Bellerin he still played ok and put himself in some good position and was unlucky to not score and Auba was even worse than Pepe but you aren't saying anything about that.

I bet you'd be over the moon when Willian has his customary nothing assist and use it as proof why he should be a starter over Pepe.

 

[Moah]

People were saying he can't see a pass or he can't execute it well enough despite what we saw vs Tottenham and many other games. There were some calling the pass vs Tottenham as overhit just because they couldn't swallow the fact that he might just be that good.

What I have come to understand is that some will never ever want to believe he is good so are more interested in downplaying his qualities. Its tiring to argue with people like that so its better to let it go I guess.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

You are something else, at this point I think you’re just doing it to spite @Macho either that or you’ve genuinely lost your mind.

What's wrong with that post?

He’s quickly becoming one of the worst posters on the forum. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt but there’s no stopping El Paragrapho once he’s on a roll.

El Paragrapho Almost as bad as paelladyce I got covid, mate, with so much time at home I inevitably end up seeing what you mad men are on about here!

But man, it's crazy how strong the power of the Pepe fanboy club is here, lol, you point out he played a poor game last night and you get called one of the worst posters on the forum, and are told you have 'overriding arguments' (in the total absence of overriding arguments, haha). Pa fliparlo colega.

And what was wrong with this performance? He wasn't bad neither was he excellent. It's not like the manager did him any favour by deploying a Midfield trio of Ceballos, Xhaka and Elneny. Inspite of Bellerin he still played ok and put himself in some good position and was unlucky to score and Auba was even worse than Pepe but you aren't saying anything about that.

I bet you'd be over the moon when Willian has his customary nothing assist and use it as proof why he should be a starter over Pepe.

Of course he was bad. The team selection stuff is just excuses, it was against olympiakos FFS, and as pointed out, that's the same players Saka broke out with, or ESR. Really weak excuse making nothing less, that.

I don't care if Willian or Pepe is getting the assists, I'm happy with either if they are playing well. Hence I was happy with Pepe when he had that blip of good form but yes, yesterday reminded of the **** Pepe we've seen for most of his time here.

Whether Auba should be dropped depends on whether you think Lacazette or Martinelli or anyone else will do a better job........... I personally think Auba should be dropped but others will disagree. But I think it is hard to argue playing Pepe provides more for us than what Saka/ESR/Martinelli/Willian can give us. Right now Pepe has yet to prove himself to be more than a luxury signing.

Overriding arguments alert, according to @Maybe

I say it honestly and in good faith: you Pepe fanboys really need to check yourselves, you're kinda out of control. There's as much logic and checks on your confirmation bias going on in this thread as the Xhaka thread when Manberg was about.

 

[mpower2540]

The amount of times this guy has had to put up with the likes of Elneny, Bellerin, Ceballos and Xhaka plodding about and ignoring him (in fairness to Ceballos he actually found him with a lovely ball in the first half) whenever he makes a run in behind must be infuriating. Feed him when he wants it and more often then that a chance is created!! Wasn’t his best game by any means but he was at the heart of a lot of our dangerous moments.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I don't see him getting in ahead of ESR or Saka on a regular basis. They're better suited to the style Arteta wants to play I think.

Pepe's a bit unfortunate in that respect as he's generally done well the past few months when given opportunities . As a squad / impact player I'm happy with him, he offers something different and has moments of real quality.

With us hopefully going deep in the Europa he should probably get a bit more game time in the PL.

 

[Jury]

He’s clearly a rhythm player. What he’s shown is when he’s given a few starts in a row he begins to deliver. Too bad he’s then hooked for no reason.

I used to think that, but I don't think it's the biggest factor with him. I wouldn't say he's a merely a 'moments' player, but his best bits are usually great moments that don't really require rhythm. He's done well far more often than not lately from the bench and that shows that he's not some weak minded basket case, so I think you'd have to put last night down to just whatever. There doesn't have to be a reason for a nothing display every time he has one.

 

[Pop Tart]

He misses a lot of chances..

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Comparing the opportunities Auba and Pepe get from the manager is silly anyway.

Auba is a proven top 10 in the world goalscorer over the best part of the decade. Call it favouritism or whatever you want but he's got a hell of a lot of credit in the bank and rightfully so. He's earnt it.

Pepe's situation is totally different. I want to see him get more game time but he doesn't have the track record nor has he earnt the status Auba has in our side.

He's been here pushing 2 years and yeah he's been somewhat unfortunate this year in terms of opportunities, so let's factor that in.

Still, the cold hard truth of the matter is he's put up Gervinho level numbers at Arsenal.

Gervinho - 46 PL appearances 9 Goals 9 Assists.

Pepe 51 PL appearances 10 Goals 6 Assists

He's an end product player that doesn't produce enough end product. It's not a record that's going to get you walking into the side to be honest or shunting other players around to accommodate you.

 

[Riou]

Comparing the opportunities Auba and Pepe get from the manager is silly anyway.

Auba is a legitimately proven top 10 in the world goalscorer over the best part of the decade. Call it favouritism or whatever you want but he's got a hell of a lot of credit in the bank and rightfully so.

Pepe's situation is totally different. I want to see him get more game time but he doesn't have the track record nor has he earnt the status Auba has in our side.

He's been here pushing 2 years and yeah he's been somewhat unfortunate this year in terms of opportunities. Still, the reality is he's put up Gervinho level numbers.

Gervinho - 46 PL appearances 9 Goals 9 Assists.

Pepe 51 PL appearances 10 Goals 6 Assists

That's not a record that's going to get you walking into the side to be honest.

We paid over £70 million for a Gervinho, with 1999 The Rock sideburns

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Two years in and we're still hoping he'll push on and get consistency. But every time he's written off he comes through with some big displays. Tough one to really get a handle on.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Comparing the opportunities Auba and Pepe get from the manager is silly anyway.

Auba is a proven top 10 in the world goalscorer over the best part of the decade. Call it favouritism or whatever you want but he's got a hell of a lot of credit in the bank and rightfully so.

Pepe's situation is totally different. I want to see him get more game time but he doesn't have the track record nor has he earnt the status Auba has in our side.

He's been here pushing 2 years and yeah he's been somewhat unfortunate this year in terms of opportunities, so let's factor that in.

Still, the cold hard truth of the matter is he's put up Gervinho level numbers at Arsenal.

Gervinho - 46 PL appearances 9 Goals 9 Assists.

Pepe 51 PL appearances 10 Goals 6 Assists

That's not a record that's going to get you walking into the side to be honest.

A bit of common sense

 

[TakeChillPill]

He's been winning me over recently, just by his shear work ethic and desire on the pitch.

On the ball he's still very much enigma, never want to see him start with bellerin.

 

[Iceman10]

One thing to be said from Pepe’s appearance in the EL second leg with Olympiakos, looking good with progress overall (bigger picture) but something was driving him to get on the scoresheet instead of assists when they were the better option. I do think he needs to show swagger and confidence to a certain level but there is a balance with it all that he will have to get right. The important bit really is his overall coaching, by Mikel, Steve Round, and the rest of the staff.