Arsenal: Don’t sensationalize Nicolas Pepe situation

Unai Emery yet again didn’t start Nicolas Pep, and Arsenal fans are griping about it, but gripe about the things actually worth griping about. This isn’t one of them.

You’d think that in the wake of the drama parade that Unai Emery has introduced to the club, that Arsenal fans wouldn’t need to go looking for extra fuel to feed the garbage fire. But here they are, complaining that Nicolas Pepe didn’t start the match, and was instead relegated to coming on at half to fix the match.

He didn’t end up fixing the match, though twice he had the chance to. In a 2v1, he opted to give up the opportunity, which lead to nothing. And on a tremendous scissorkick, he hit the crossbar.

Call the two a cancel out, leaving Nicolas Pepe at a nice, even zero for the match. Yet again he didn’t play the part that we needed him too and, overall, it has to be considered a disappointment.

Let me remind you that Pepe has been benched for a reason. And a good one, at that. He wasn’t effective. You can’t hide from that. He was not playing his best and I actually applaud Emery for having the gumption to sit the record signing.

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I applaud him even more that he gave Pepe a massive opportunity to be the impact player against Southampton. An opportunity that Pepe didn’t take.

Emery isn’t purposely keeping Pepe unhappy. This isn’t an Ozil situation. This is a situation of a new player needing to acclimate and Emery not having the luxury of allowing it to play out on the pitch. Sometimes a nice firm benching is what a player needs to wake up.

Where these two go from here is anyone’s guess, but of all the fatal flaws at the club, this isn’t one of them. Pepe will get back into the fold, he will prove effective, he will score goals. But leaving him on the pitch when he isn’t effective does no one any favors.

I won’t stop anyone from saying that Emery should be fired for any number of offenses, but his treatment of Pepe has been completely practical, if not strangely level-headed for a manager not known for making many good decisions lately.

Chances are he’s going to get more involved going forward anyway, because Emery needs someone to turn to in his time of need.