Arsenal need another talisman in attack.
The Gunners terminated the contract of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last week, with the Gabon international ultimately joining Barcelona on a free transfer.
However, the decision to dump Aubameyang has divided opinion among Arsenal supporters.
Some of the fanbase are backing manager Mikel Arteta but, with the North Londoners only scoring one goal since Boxing Day, others feel that the 32-year-old – who reached 50 goals for the club faster than anybody in their history – could’ve played a massive role between now and the end of the season.
Without Aubameyang, there’s a lot more pressure on the likes of Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah.
But Nicolas Pepe has posted a message on Instagram that’ll interest the Arsenal manager.
The 26-year-old attacker posted a photograph of himself in training and captioned it: “I’m back.”
It remains to be seen what Pepe is alluding to because even with his Africa Cup of Nations involvement last month, the Ivory Coast international still met up with his Arsenal teammates in Dubai on their warm weather training camp.
It could also insinuate that the former Lille winger – who cost a club-record £72 million in 2019 – is ready to start delivering.
The Spanish manager has only played Pepe in 12 outings across all competitions this season, which is a very low amount of appearances.
Nevertheless, no Arsenal player has set up more goals than the France-born livewire [5] and if Arteta starts giving him more chances, he could well replace Aubameyang – not in terms of scoring goals, but importance.
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