Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe will make Alexandre Lacazette injury much easier

Arsenal fans have been bafflingly unsure about Nicolas Pepe’s debut thus far, but it’s about to get really real, really fast, and we’re going to like it.

Last year, if Alexandre Lacazette got hurt, it was the end of the world. Arsenal couldn’t cope. They didn’t have the necessary tools to fill out an attack that could strike fear into opponents. The best they could do was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and maybe Mesut Ozil, maybe a youngster, maybe something else just to fill the gap.

It wasn’t awful, and the potential was always there, but it wasn’t deadly. And the worst part was when the creators couldn’t keep Aubameyang engaged. The man needs service. He needs movement around him and he really didn’t have that when Lacazette was absent.

Now, Lacazette is absent, and he will be out until October, and obviously our first question is who can keep Aubameyang engaged. Who can do what Mkhitaryan and Ozil and a whole slew of people failed to do last year?

That man is Nicolas Pepe. The record-breaking signing that all of a sudden people are questioning for literally no reason.

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Honestly, the man hasn’t played but a couple hundred minutes and he’s already under the microscope as if people have seen all they need to see. In that time, he has proven to be a dynamic attacker, already notching an assist but, more importantly, showing a propensity for making things happen.

He’s a dribbler, a playmaker, the kind of person that doesn’t let an attack slow down. He’s what we needed last year to keep Aubameyang engaged and he’s what we have this year to do the same.

It’s no secret that Auba is better when Lacazette is in the team. They compliment each other so well and Lacazette always knows where to find Aubameyang. But without Lacazette, that job falls to Pepe, who I have every bit of faith in.

Pepe is going to do the job that no one could do last year, and hopefully that will be enough to stave off all the naysayers who are already finding a way to doubt the capabilities of the massively talented French forward.

And hell, who knows, maybe he will even score some goals in the process. He doesn’t even need to though, just like Lacazette didn’t need to. Aubameyang will score, all Pepe has to do is keep the ball moving.