Arsenal: Somehow Nicolas Pepe has become our creative center

Arsenal’s creative deficiencies are well documented. Don’t look now but Nicolas Pepe has broken through the crowd to be the main man.

All season long, we’ve been asking the same question—who’s creating the chances? It’s a problem Arsenal have had for so long. Last year, with Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, we were supposed to be in the clear. Ozil, the greatest No. 10 in the world right?

Both failed, so we got Denis Suarez, who then failed as well. Though to be fair, he never really got a chance due to injury. With Mkhitaryan leaving the club, we were left with Ozil and the new boy, Dani Ceballos.

Ceballos had one superb game then disappeared and got hurt. Very Denis Suarez style. Which left us with Ozil. A guy who once used to stand up to Kevin De Bruyne in the creative department.

This season, Ozil has one assist in his 600+ minutes of play. Safe to say he is no longer our creative center. So who is?

Nicolas Pepe. That’s who.

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Every so often I peruse the team stats. (I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Maybe I’m just bored.) This time around, I discovered that Nicolas Pepe leads the team in assists and leads all regular starters in chances created (1.3).

Just like that, this record signing “flop” has become the most reliable at creating chances. And I just don’t know how to feel about that.

Granted, it isn’t much of a domain. He’s right around 40th in the Premier League in chances created. Assists puts him a bit higher, around 20th, but overall, this is not the creative brilliance we’re so used to having at this club. And if we had to prioritize something, where do you place the priority on finding someone who can actually create consistent chances?

Or do you keep hoping that Dani Ceballos can do the job?

Not everyone has that creative midfield dominance. It’s just that we’ve had it for so long it’s hard to come down from it. Especially because it’s usually the case that when you don’t have that central midfield creator, you revert to creative wingers. We didn’t really have any wingers until this year. So while it’s definitely a mess, it could also be more kindly viewed as a work in progress.

Still, if we are going to ditch Ozil at long last, we have to consider reassessing where these chances are coming from. Because right now the answer is nowhere. With an occasional Pepe sighting.