Maybe
You're wrong, no?
There is no reason to attack one or the other (or defend), both players bring something to our game and can be used within the system we have.Per 90 mins Pepe is inferior to Willian in terms of:
Touches
Possession lost
Passes attempted
Passes completed
Pass accuracy
Cross accuracy
Take-on success
Ground duel-success
etc... as well as a bunch of other key stats. And once again I'm not seeing anyone rush to defend Willian despite a fairly identical distribution of minutes.
Mate I'm not disputing that Pepe has been improving lately, so if we want to mention that then we should be talking about his recent games. I'm all for that, go right ahead. But when we talk in generalities and talk about the season as a whole to try and defend the totality of his performances, that's what I'm against. Because prior to his recent run of tidy performances, he was fairly poor before that and no amount of stats can convince me of what my eyes saw otherwise.
Because as I'm highlighting if we go down that route then people could make the same arguments for Willian despites his tangible performances being poor. And you could also factor in that Willian was a free vs 72 million Pepe etc.. You're flogging a dead horse at this stage. For me personally the current assessment should be: Pepe had a bad/indifferent 1st season, had a bad 1/2-2/3rd of this season but he's currently getting better so lets wait and see if that continues and improves.
If we need someone tidy on the ball and safe in possession, Willian will always be the preferred option, but if we need someone who will make things happen, it should be Pepe.
Maybe that's why Pepe comes in late when we are down, but I feel it's very often too late.
These statistics cr*p needs to stop, most of Willian's assists this season were complete luck. You don't bring Willian on to get goals or assists, that's something you get from Saka/Pepe/ESR, you have him on the pitch to keep the possession.
It's on Arteta to make the right choice when to play them, and I'm not convinced that often by his choices