It was a pretty difficult afternoon for Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe today.
The Gunners were dumped out of the FA Cup following a 1-0 defeat away to Southampton.
And it was an own goal from Arsenal centre-back Gabriel that did the damage as the Brazilian diverted a Kyle Walker-Peters cross past Bernd Leno in the first half.
That being said, Mikel Arteta’s side had chances to get back into the game and Pepe, a £72 million signing in 2019, fluffed some of them, including one great one in the final five minutes.
The 25-year-old’s delivery from set pieces was also a tad erratic and Alan Hutton has described him as ‘so poor’ in that regard today.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Pepe’s corner was so disappointing, it’s a chance when they get up the pitch and he hits the first man – it’s so poor. The delivery from Arsenal has been poor all day, he just lifted that over the bar and he needs to do a lot better than that.”
Pepe is Arsenal’s most expensive signing of all time and really, he hasn’t even justified half of his transfer fee over the past 18 months.
The talent is undeniably there, as Arteta has said on numerous occasions over the past year or so.
But the consistency isn’t and this game sort of epitomised everything that’s good and bad about the Ivory Coast international, who earns £100,000 per week at the Emirates.
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