Arsenal: The building excitement of Nicolas Pepe

Nicolas Pepe made his first Arsenal start in Saturday’s defeat to Liverpool. With some extremely bright moments, there is a growing excitement surrounding the £72 million signing.

Arsenal made a splash in the summer transfer window. In need of some dynamism in attack and dribbling out wide, they broke their club-record transfer fee to acquire 24-year-old Lille winger, Nicolas Pepe. And on Saturday, in a largely disappointing 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, he made his first start for the club.

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It was a wonderful stage to make his full debut. At Anfield, against the second-best team in the world, facing the best central defender in the world, if ever there was a game for Pepe to make a statement of his world-class ability, this was it.

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He didn’t quite take the game by the scruff of the neck, but there were brief moments where his ability really shone. He skipped past both Andy Robertson and then van Dijk early on, the combination of his speed, skill and explosive athleticism making it extremely difficult to tackle the ball away. He almost scored from a curling effort on the edge of the penalty area, before later bursting through the heart of the Liverpool defence, swerving past Robertson, only to hit his finish straight at Adrian.

There were other touches throughout the match. His frame held off tacklers, he spun past Robertson again with a brilliant turn, dummying a dribble inside before bursting back up the touchline, and was Arsenal’s primary threat. He also held the ball up well, using his size to protect the ball, and was an outlet to release pressure on the counter-attack.

There is now a growing excitement surrounding Pepe, as there should be for someone who broke the club transfer record. While he has only tantalised so far this season, those small moments are enough to get a sense of anticipation rippling through the fanbase.

Admittedly, the true excitement of a front three featuring Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Pepe has not quite come to the fore. That triumvirate played together briefly against Burnley and again against Liverpool at the weekend, but they are to make a start alongside one another.

Nevertheless, given the obvious quality of Lacazette, the scoring ability of Aubameyang, which has been demonstrated with two goals already this season, and the brief moments of sublime skill and speed from Pepe, it is surely a trio that will enthrall the Emirates throughout the season.

Pepe is here. And that is very exciting indeed.