Nicolas Pepe is finally hitting his best form in an Arsenal shirt

Although he has taken a while to settle into the Premier League after becoming Arsenal’s record signing in 2019, it looks like the Nicholas Pepe is finally proving his worth for The Gunners.

With such a high price tag to his name as well as an illustrious record in Ligue 1, Pepe was deemed as the Premier League signing of the Summer in 2019 as Arsenal looked to improve on their fifth-place finish in the previous campaign. There was notable excitement around the transfer of Pepe as Arsenal were still yet to find a creative replacement for star winger Alexis Sanchez who departed the club two seasons before.

Disappointingly for Arsenal and their fans, Pepe was an unrecognisable shadow of the player that The Gunners believed they had acquired from Lille in his first Premier League season, as the Ivorian Winger struggled to make any major impact in a lacklustre Arsenal side who finished eighth in his debut season.

The winger managed a sensational 33 league goal contributions in his final season with Lille, however in his first at Arsenal, Pepe was only able to contribute 11 times in the league for the Gunners, as he struggled with the higher physicality levels against much tougher opposition defenders.

After a slow start to the current season as well as struggling with his discipline picking up a red card for a headbutt, in recent matches, Pepe has really come into the Arsenal side with confidence and is now challenging for his place in the starting 11 once more. With three goals in his last six games and a man of the match performance against Leicester last weekend, Pepe is really giving Mikel Arteta a headache on who he starts.

The winger has played everywhere across the front line this season, but has shone brightest in the wider areas of the pitch. One reason that Pepe struggled to break into the line-up so far this season his competition for places, with captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang playing on one wing and starlet Bukayo Saka starting on the other.

Pepe played arguably his game of the season last week against a strong Leicester side that Arsenal overcame in a 3-1 win at the king Power. The winger drew foul after foul as he danced through the defence with his trademark quick feet, being in the right place at the right time in the second half to seal the victory for Arsenal with a close-range finish.

Arteta has certainly noticed the improvement of Pepe in recent weeks, as the boss was full of praise for the Ivorian when he recently said:

“He’s had some really good matches and scored some important goals as well and I think that has helped him for the Premier League form and the recent form that he’s shown,” –

With Arsenal qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League, fixtures are becoming more congested for Arteta’s men, with the manager already resting players such as Saka and Aubameyang to save them for the bigger European nights, giving Pepe much more game time.

With that said, Saka hasn’t featured for Arsenal in over a week and with the next round of Europa league ties starting next week he will be expected to replace Pepe in the starting 11 against Burnley to keep the 19-year-old sharp.

As Arsenal approach the most important part of their season with huge games in the Europa League as well as matchups in the Premier League against the likes of Liverpool West Ham and of course the North London derby next week, Nicolas Pepe couldn’t have hit his best form at a better time as the Gunners look to push for Europe next season.

It’s a huge 13 days in Arsenal’s season, following their trip to Turf Moor on Saturday, they face fiercest rivals Tottenham at the Emirates, with two European Ties against Olympiakos sandwiched inbetween.

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