Arsenal: How Nicolas Pepe will help the defence

Despite their defensive issues, Arsenal have chosen to splash the cash on a winger, not a centre-half. Here is how Nicolas Pepe will help both.

Arsenal have conceded 51 Premier League goals in the last two seasons. If you need making aware, that is not very good. It is not a coincidence that they finished outside of the top four in both of those campaigns. Bad defence often leads to bad results, and that has very much been the case for the Gunners of late.

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You would expect, then, the summer transfer business to focus on bolstering one of the worst defensive units in the division. And to an extent, Arsenal have done so, by signing 18-year-old William Saliba, even if he does not join up with the team until next summer, and potentially signing left-back Kieran Tierney.

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However, the big move of the window is not a new centre-half or defensive midfielder or full-back. It is a winger, and not just any winger, a direct, dynamic, goalscoring winger. Lille’s Nicolas Pepe will arrive at the Emirates next season having broken the club record transfer fee in a £72 million deal. Whichever way you slice it, the Gunners will have ploughed substantial resources into an attacking position, despite being the third-highest scoring team in the Premier League last season.

So what is the thinking here? Well, as Mark Mann-Bryans of the Press Association reported this week, Arsenal assessed their away struggles last year and highlighted the need for a pacy, direct, skilful winger over a commanding centre-half. If you watched any of their away performances last year, you would very quickly agree with that analysis. But even more than the road displays, the introduction of Pepe will aid the defence as well.

The lack of natural width in the team last season unbalanced the connection between each unit. The defence had to provide attacking width, meaning that it was routinely exploited on the counter-attack, the midfield was often overly cramped in central areas, while the attack could not press cohesively without orchestrated pressure from the wide positions — how many times did you see the opposition full-back bound forward with acres of space?

Principally, this is how Pepe will aid the defence, by providing a greater balance to the team, in and out of possession, thus preventing the vulnerability against the counter-attack in transitions and helping Arsenal control matches through extended periods of possession, exerting greater pressure throughout the 90 minutes.

But Pepe’s mere presence will also release the defence from being consistent pressure themselves. Just by his being there, the opposition will not be so gung-ho in their strategy. They will press that little bit more conservatively, aware that Pepe could beat one defender and open up the whole pitch, and full-backs will not be so willing to push forward on overlapping runs. And all this will help the centre-halves.

Does this mean that Arsenal have solved their defensive ineptness by signing Pepe? No, it does not. Does this mean that a new centre-half is no longer needed because Pepe will make those already at the club that much more comfortable? Again, no. But Pepe’s presence, his threat from dribbling and running in behind, and the balance that his natural width provides, will all help the Arsenal defence, if not quite solve it.