Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette should help you understand Nicolas Pepe
By Josh Sippie
No matter who you are, transitioning to the Premier League is hard. Arsenal fans should apply what they learned from Alexandre Lacazette to Nicolas Pepe.
It’s amazing to me that so many people have had to come out and tell Arsenal fans to be patient with Nicolas Pepe. Really. Now Wilfried Zaha, the guy we failed to sign, is telling fans to chill the f*** out and appreciate what they have. Honestly, it’s a bit ridiculous.
What makes it even more ridiculous is that we should know this kind of thing happens. No matter who the player, there is always an acclimation period, though we never know when it might strike. For Alexis Sanchez, it was the second half of his first season. He struggled to figure himself out.
For Alexandre Lacazette, it was the middle of this first season. Just two whole years ago, Lacazette went on a streak of scoring just one goal in eleven matches. Now he’s the best player on the team. But if you recall, going back to that dry spell, people were—yet again—worried.
Worried that Lacazette wasn’t good enough. Worried that he was a flop. Worried that we’d made a mistake. And so many people said the same thing—be patient, you idiots.
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(I added the ‘you idiots’ part.)
The fact that Lacazette made the exact same move from Ligue 1 to the Premier League two years ago and had the exact same problems that Pepe is currently having is what I find to be the most frustrating thing about this whole ordeal. Have people really forgotten, or are they just so blinded by their own ravenousness that they don’t care if this is the order of things, they want it to be different?
The only difference is that Pepe’s struggles are coming early in his first year. So we have Alexis, who struggled later. Lacazette, who struggled in the middle. Now Pepe, who is struggling early. Maybe I understand, because at least with Lacazette and Alexis we’d gotten a taste of success before they struggled.
But even still, he has a proven track record, the same as Lacazette did. So it’s not really an excuse at all.
Come on guys, let’s not make opposing players tell us what we should already know. It makes us all looks stupid. Just understand that Pepe is incredibly talented and he will click if you just chill out and let him.