Arsenal vs Chelsea: 5 key players with so much on the line

3. Nicolas Pepe

This is a man on the up and up. Which is funny because no one seems to want to talk about it. All the media was there to rip him a new one when he wasn’t performing and when he was having the audacity to acclimate. What a total jerk.

He’s been improving more and more every time he steps out there Against Sheffield he may have had two assists if Gabriel Martinelli could have put the finishing touches on.

Sneakily, Pepe has become one of our biggest goal-scoring threats. His left-footed curler is to die for and he’s been having very little trouble blitzing around defenders to find space. The trick is going to be balancing the attack enough to let Pepe have enough to combine with. Give him more of a supporting cast than he’s had lately.

Otherwise, we can still count on Pepe to instigate enough of his own, just with his own ability to ask the important questions. That can lead to goals as well, as we’ve seen.

Hopefully that trajectory keeps up. Dude is exciting.

Next stop, No. 2.