Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe needs Hector Bellerin

Nicolas Pepe has not enjoyed a very successful start to his Arsenal career. However, he will be helped massively by the growing return and involvement of Hector Bellerin.

When Arsenal signed Lille winger Nicolas Pepe for a club-record £72 million this summer, an immediate sense of excitement and expectation reverberated around the fanbase. And for good reason. Not only was Pepe the precise type of player the club needed to acquire; he was a high-calibre version.

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The Gunners were linked to a myriad of wingers throughout the summer window, including Yannick Carrasco, Ryan Fraser and Wilfried Zaha. In reality, any of these players represent what the team needed: a dynamic, direct, goalscoring and creating wide attacker. The only difference between these and Pepe is ability, especially the former two.

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While Carrasco is an intriguing prospect and Fraser a mightily undervalued and consistent Premier League performer, neither are in the same league as Pepe. This was a player who scored 20-plus goals and provided 10-plus assists last season. The only other player to achieve that feat in a top-five European league was Lionel Messi. Pepe was a mighty attacking force, a driving, darting goalscorer, a skilful, silky dribbler, and pacy, frightening winger, the exact type of player that Arsenal needed, and one that no one ever really believed that they could acquire.

However, while Pepe has displayed his ability in fleeting moments here and there, on the whole, he has disappointed in his first season. He is still waiting for a goal from open play, has nothing more than routine assists from corner kicks or basic passes, and is now being dropped from the team for an 18-year-old or formerly unwanted Mesut Ozil. The jury is still out on the signing, of course, but it has not been a positive start to life in north London for the Ivory Coast international.

However, while the presence of certain players cannot completely reason for or against his efficacy thus far, not having Hector Bellerin as a forging, enterprising full-back behind him has uncertainly stented the openings that he loves to takes advantage of.

As a left-footer playing on the right side, Pepe loves to drop his shoulder as if he set to burst down the line, then drive inside onto his left foot, unleashing a shot on goal, threading a through pass for a teammate or looking to combine with a central midfielder. This style of inverted-winger is prominent in the modern game, but it only works if there is a teammate stretching the pitch horizontally outside of them, usually an overlapping full-back (see Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold for the best example of this).

First with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and then with Calum Chambers, Pepe has never had an overlapping presence to attract the defensive attention of opposition markers. As a result, whenever he has received the ball, he has immediately been placed under pressure, forced to turn back towards his own goal. Space has been at a premium, especially inside of him, and it is this space that Pepe thrives on. Bellerin’s presence as a bombarding right-back, hurtling down the flank on the outside will help engineer this space.

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The absence of Bellerin is no excuse for Pepe and his poor performances. A player of his quality should be performing well independently of the players around him. He should be carrying them, not the other way around. Nevertheless, as he continues to adapt to the Premier League and learn the nuances of his new team and league, the return of Bellerin, and the space that it provides, will only serve to help.

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