Arsenal vs Sheffield United: Pressure mostly on one man

Arsenal have a lot of new faces likely to make their debuts against Sheffield United, but there’s only one man bearing the brunt of the pressure.

Arsenal figure to make a lot of change going into the match against Sheffield United, particularly on the defense. By all signs, Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin should be making their way back into the starting XI at least, so the pressure will be on them to perform where their predecessor’s didn’t.

But even with so many changes likely to come, the gross majority of the pressure in this one is going to be resting firmly on the shoulders of one man—Nicolas Pepe.

The Ivorian winger hasn’t had his best start to the season, as you all know, and while patience is key in his development, that doesn’t mean he keeps hold of his starting job just because.

There are a lot of ticking time bombs weighing in on Pepe. For starters (no pun intended), Alexandre Lacazette is coming back, and needless to say, Lacazette will take priority as soon as he is ready to start again.

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Which, while it may not be against Sheffield United, will be soon after, probably in the next match.

Pepe had been cruising in the front three alongside Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but with the emergence of Bukayo Saka, his time as a shoo-in is going to be running thin. A front three of Lacazette, Aubameyang and Saka now sounds more appealing than with Pepe, meaning that in this match, perhaps the last match that Pepe starts in for awhile, he needs to make an impact, and a big one.

It’s only a matter of time before Pepe sorts himself out, and that’s well and good for the future, but shifting the focus into the present, where it belongs, Pepe isn’t as effective as he needs to be, and so long as that is the case, the pressure will continue to bear on him. It’s just heavier against Sheffield because there’s a pending change right around the corner and if Pepe wants to retain his spot he is going to have to do more than he’s been doing.

Emery has showed his hand, he’s been subbing Pepe out sooner than Saka in the past few matches. There will be no favorites here. Put up or shut up, as they say, and Pepe is right on the cusp of needing to do one or the other.