Arsenal: 3 reasons Nicolas Pepe is wildly superior to Wilfried Zaha

2. His numbers are better

Wilfried Zaha is capable of some pretty neat things, hence the video that sparked the conversation, but so is Nicolas Pepe, and if you look at what Pepe has done in his first-ever year in the Premier League, it’s better than what Zaha has done in his best-ever year in the Premier League.

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Zaha’s best year was 2016/17 when he accounted for seven goals and nine assists in 3000 minutes for a grand total of a goal contribution every 189 minutes. That’s good. And for Palace it’s really good.

But Nicolas Pepe this year—a year that has seen him highly criticized—he has four goals and six assists in the Premier League alone, in 1500 minutes, for a goal contribution every 159 minutes. Factor in the Europa League and that goes down to every 135 minutes.

Which are really good numbers for a brand new arrival. This year alone he is thumping Zaha, who has just three goals and three assists in over 2500 minutes—meaning he’s averaging over 400 minutes between goal contributions.

You can talk about hypotheticals all you want, and how Zaha is on a worse team, but I’ll take my hardcore proof over your hypotheticals all day. Pepe is just better.

Finally, No. 1.