Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe could learn from Bukayo Saka

On Thursday, 18-year-old Bukayo Saka did something that Arsenal record signing Nicolas Pepe is yet to: score. Perhaps Pepe could learn a thing or two.

One touch to turn on the edge of the penalty area. Another to create space. The chance opened up to shoot from about 25 yards. Plenty of normal players would have taken it on. And Bukayo Saka did precisely that, teeing himself up on his favoured left foot and unleashing a shot on goal. But that is where the similarities between what Saka did and what normal players do ended.

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Most players in this situation would have panicked. The chance to shoot from distance. ‘I will kick this as hard as I possibly can,’ would, I presume, be the thought process of most. It would certainly be mine. But not for Saka.

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Looking up and seeing the position of the goalkeeper and goal, Saka composed himself, took his time, and simply passed the ball into the bottom corner of the goal, a curling left-footed shot that bent past the futile stretch of Kevin Trapp with an equally sumptuous aesthetic and positive end-product.

That kind of composure is rare is any player. To see it in an 18-year-old is even more astonishing, a clear illustration of his inordinate potential as a future superstar of the Arsenal team. And there is, quite frankly, a current superstar of the senior team who could learn a thing or two from the fresh-faced Saka.

£72 million says that Nicolas Pepe, not Saka, should be curling beautiful left-footed shots into the bottom corner of goals from the edge of the penalty area. And yet, so far this season, it has not happened for Arsenal’s record signing.

What he is missing is that very skill that separates the good players from the great players, the quality that Saka showed in the 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt that is so rare for a teenager: composure.

Pepe has looked extremely sharp in limited action thus far. His touch is good, he has great skill when dribbling with the ball, he explodes off the mark and defenders are obviously scared to come near him. But in front of goal, when it comes to that final shot, he could learn a thing or two from Saka.

I am not especially concerned by Pepe’s inability to score at present. He still looks dangerous and his goal record is such that he is obviously a proven finisher. Confidence — and a bit of good luck — is all that is missing. But he does need to slow down when opportunities arise. It is as if he is trying too hard to score, such that when the chance comes, he panics.

Saka is a superstar in the making. But Pepe is a superstar in the here and now. He just needs to fine-tune his game, and, oddly enough, that can come through replicating the composure of a teenager.