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Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe already better than Wilfried Zaha
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal were able to prove, in head-to-head format, that their summer signing beat what might have been their summer signing. Victory, Nicolas Pepe.
One of the main showdowns I was looking forward to against Crystal Palace was Wilfried Zaha vs Nicolas Pepe. The man we spent a ton of money on vs the man we decided not to spend a ton of money on. Arsenal could prove here and now that they made the right choice, even considering that Zaha has been in the league for ages, while Pepe is going on a few months.
The end result was clear as day. Zaha was sloppy, he was awful in possession, surrendering possession ten times, including eight poor touches. That was twice as many general surrenders to what Pepe had and it was four times the number of poor touches.
And this was a match where I wished Pepe could have taken better touches. He was still four times better than Zaha.
Related Story. Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Player Ratings. light
They each created just the one chance, but Pepe out-dribbled Zaha on the day, 3-2 and it was Pepe who provided the threat late in the match, while Zaha did his best to convincingly flop for a penalty. Just another failure.
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Look at the season as a whole. Zaha has played 800 more minutes than Pepe, yet it’s our Frenchman who has the higher goal production. And when it comes to ball security, Pepe is far and away better suited. Zaha loses the ball, on average 7.6 times per match. That’s insanely high.
Meanwhile, Pepe is cruising at 3.9. Twice as reliable. And guess who creates more chances? Yup. You know it. Defensively it’s a wash, they’re dead even.
Plus Pepe is younger and, as mentioned, newer to the league by quite some distance.
I have never been too high on Zaha. Sure, he has some talent, but he gets out-produced by Ryan Fraser literally every single year. And you can bark about him being limited at Palace all you want, when Arsenal came in to Selhurst, we were behind them in the table and Pepe still outperformed Zaha. Hell, Pepe outperformed him when we only had ten men.
That’s the mark of an all-around better player. I don’t care how you spin it.
Next. 5 Things Learned Against Crystal Palace. dark
When Pepe is 27, like Zaha is now, he will be elite. He will be contributing numbers that Zaha has only dreamed of. So well done, Arsenal. You bought the right guy.