Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe has been criticised by ex star.
Ex-Gunners star Charlie Nicholas has torn into Arsenal record signing Nicolas Pepe.
Writing in his Europa League predictions column for Sky Sports, Nicholas had harsh words for Pepe’s performance for Arsenal against Watford.
The misfiring winger has not yet scored for Arsenal since joining from Lille in the summer.
Nicholas said that he feels Pepe’s performance was simply not good enough.
He also added that Pepe’s underwhelming performances are negatively impacting the rest of the team and putting younger players under pressure.
He said: “Nicolas Pepe was dreadful against Watford. How Emery took Mesut Ozil and Dani Ceballos off ahead of him was beyond me. It is starting to effect Ainsley Maitland-Niles and some of the other young players. Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock came on and could not keep the ball.
“It is the manager’s responsibility. He must resolve this and come to a conclusion on how to sort this out.”
Unai Emery does have a decision to make, whether to allow Pepe to simply play through is poor form and continue to adjust or give him a breather.
One goal is all it might take, to lift his confidence, and so the temptation will be to keep him in.
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