Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe is worth every cent we paid for him

Nicolas Pepe only played an hour against Manchester United, but good golly was he incredible. If you are doubting what Arsenal paid, kindly shut up.

Mikel Arteta finally made the change to the Arsenal starting XI that many have been expecting. He replaced Reiss Nelson with Nicolas Pepe. We saw why within ten minutes of play, with Pepe slotting home a fantastic effort in the 8th minute. It proved to be the only goal that the Gunners would need, even if they did get another.

But the goal aside, Pepe was just something else. Sure, he wasn’t perfect (at least not in every way), as he did surrender possession and lose a bit of his confidence as the match wore on (perhaps he was just tired), but there’s a reason we paid the big bucks for this guy, and we saw exactly why against United.

Keep in mind when I start reeling off these numbers that he only played an hour. In that hour, he created as many chances for his teammates as the rest of the team combined.

In an hour. He was our biggest threat to goal all day and nearly bagged a second on a beautiful curler that struck the post.

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More than that, though, he competed 100% of his passes. Literally. All of them. That includes his two crosses and his two longballs. He also completed four dribbles, as many as any other two players combined.

Yeah, he lost the ball a good deal of times. Eight times in total. That’s a byproduct of all his creativity and instigation. I always say I don’t mind when an attacker loses the ball if he counterbalances with success creating on the other end. He more than did that.

Arteta has highlighted the need for Pepe to be confident. To play with belief in what he’s doing. In the opening there, he was spinning Luke Shaw every which way. That is the mark of a confident man. Even if he did lose that edge later on, it might be the ignition he needed to really get back into his best possible form.

And the best part is he’s still learning. There were times he should have ran to the far post but didn’t. But he acknowledged that he didn’t. Which means he’ll do better the next time.

So much to look forward to here. If you have any doubts that this was money well spent, just wait and see. But know that you’ll be late to the belief party.