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Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has leaped to the defence of Nicolas Pepe and blamed the Ivorian’s teammates for the winger’s lack of goals.
Pepe has endured a tough start to life in England following his club-record £72m switch from Lille this past summer.
The winger has found the net just once in the Premier League – a penalty against Aston Villa back in September.
Nicolas Pepe has netted just once for Arsenal this season
His poor form has led to manager Unai Emery now leaving him out of the starting lineup, but Henry, who also struggled when he first joined Arsenal from Juventus in 1999, believes the 24 year-old must be given more time to prove his worth.
“When you arrive like that, you’re always going to be talked about, and people are always going to target you,” Henry said (via The Sun).
“He needs to make sure he doesn’t listen to that and go out and perform. People need to forget about the price tag. He didn’t ask to be bought for that amount of money himself.
“It’s not always easy to arrive in a team, adapt to a new style of play. The Premier League, as we know, is not the same as the French League or any other league, by the way. So he needs to adapt to that. We need to give him time.”
Thierry Henry – Arsenal’s record goal scorer
After failing to score in his firs eight games, Henry shook off his tough to start and went on to become the club’s all-time top goalscorer with 228 strikes.
The Frenchman believes that Pepe individually is not to blame – but rather the whole of the Arsenal team.
“People like to highlight the player but if the team were playing a bit better, maybe he would be playing a bit better,” Henry added.
“At the minute, it’s not a Pepe thing, it’s an Arsenal thing. Hopefully he and the team can get better so we can get in the top four again.”
