Arsenal Vs Manchester City: A Nicolas Pepe field day?

Manchester City have a turnstile left-back situation that Arsenal should look to take advantage of. Could Sunday afternoon be a field day for Nicolas Pepe?

While Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are the best English team that I have ever seen play football, this season’s iteration has a fairly glaring weakness: they cannot defend. They have already conceded 19 goals, which is only five fewer than Arsenal, and have kept just five clean sheets all year, their last one coming in October.

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Specifically, they have a major problem at left-back. Oleksandr Zinchenko has been injured for much of the year, Benjamin Mendy is ostensibly in Guardiola’s dog-house, while Angelino has looked vulnerable defensively, especially when up against pacy wingers, as Daniel James proved last weekend.

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On Sunday, the Gunners have the opportunity to take advantage of this. They may not be in the most confident of form themselves, but they have speed and directness aplenty on the counter-attack that they should look to use to their advantage. And there is one player in particular who could really have a field day against a lacking City defence, if he is given the opportunity. It is time for one Nicolas Pepe to show what he is capable of.

The £72 million club-record signing put in the best display of his north London career in last Monday’s win over West Ham United. A fabulous goal, the first from open-play of the season, followed by a lovely assist, both of which were opened up by his sublime dribbling skill as West Ham defenders stepped back, afraid of being beaten all ends up, punctuated what many fans hope is a coming-of-age performance. And now he will look to replicate it against the champions.

There was some concern that Pepe might not be available for selection. After dealing with a knee contusion suffered in the West Ham game, the winger missed Thursday’s trip to Liege and had not trained all week. However, on Saturday, Arsenal confirmed that he would be available for selection and is in line to start.

And if he does indeed shake off the injury and feature heavily against City, he could well have the opportunity to rip the champions to shreds. If there is a player who has the ideal athletic and technical make-up to exploit City’s defensive weaknesses, it is Pepe. Playing off the right-wing against their hapless left-back situation, with speed to burn and terrific skill and control, he can beat defenders all ends up and is always a threat on the counter-attack.

Even early on in the season when Arsenal were struggling to feed Pepe with genuine opportunities to drive at defenders, he still showed the threat he can pose. Liverpool especially felt the force of his counter-attacking threat, that match perhaps paving the way for what may unfold on Sunday afternoon.

If Arsenal want a chance of winning against City, they must exploit the Pepe advantage. He is their X-factor, their star attacker, the man directly up against City’s weakness. He could have a field day, one that has been a long time coming.