Club owner says player he sold to Arsenal is ‘rare’

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Lille owner Gerard Lopez has raved about Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe to Sky Sports.

Arsenal signed Pepe from French club Lille in the summer of 2019 for a transfer fee reported by Sky Sports to be worth £72 million.

The 25-year-old winger did not make a great start to life at the Gunners, but he played well after the restart and scored some important goals.

According to WhoScored, the Ivory Coast international made 22 starts and nine substitute appearances in the Premier League for the Gunners during the 2019-20 season, scoring five goals and providing six assists in the process.

The winger also made two starts and four substitute appearances in the Europa League for the North London outfit in 2019-20, scoring two goals and providing two assists in the process, according to WhoScored.

Lopez told Sky Sports about Pepe: “They have a player [Pepe] where people forget his age, and the fact he took one season to click within our system and then became the player which we all know.

“He has had a good second half of the season at Arsenal and he is one of the rare players who can make something happen from nothing.

“The more comfortable he gets at the club, the more he will make things happen so I think the best is yet to come.”

Staying positive

Pepe did not exactly have the best of times at Arsenal in 2019-20, but the winger did show what he is capable of several times.

If the former Lille star is able to add more consistency to his game, then he will be a key figure in head coach Mikel Arteta’s starting lineup next season.

William Saliba praise

Meanwhile, former Arsenal striker Alan Smith has given his take on 19-year-old defender William Saliba, who is now at the Gunners from Saint-Etienne.

Smith wrote on Skysports.com: “Will William Saliba, for instance, be given an early chance after finally coming over from St Etienne? Saliba, by all accounts, has tremendous potential as a classy defender in the Virgil van Dijk mould.

“I can just imagine Arteta on that training ground, working hard with the 19-year-old to instil good habits. Depending on how that goes, we might see the Frenchman let loose early on.”