Arsenal Shouldn’t Start Nicolas Pepe Against Rapid Vienna

Five games into the season, Nicolas Pepe made his first Premier League start.

Fresh off the back of one of his finest displays for Arsenal in the FA Cup final, with a full pre-season behind him it was believed we could toss ‘he needs time’ and ‘ it’s still an adjustment period’, among others, in the bin and bear witness to the real Nicolas Pepe.

Enter Willian, who made the six mile trip north to extinguish those hopes….temporarily.

It’s easy to over-analyse, but a three-pronged attack at the Etihad featuring both natural right-wingers above all demonstrated Pepe isn’t a lost cause. At least not in the eyes of Mikel Arteta. Necessity for an alternate attacking approach had its say in the Ivorian’s start, but he still lasted 83 minutes of the match. That’s more than he made in his three previous Premier League displays combined.

How close we are to seeing Pepe become a regular starter once more would require some delicate picking of Arteta’s brain, but trust in him to perform in such a big occasion does offer a faint insight into future top-flight matches. Changes will be made to suit weekly tactics depending on opposition, granted.

Should he start against Rapid Vienna? No, he should not. And no, this is not a bad thing. I promise.

Throughout the…err, less inspiring displays Pepe has been putting in, the overriding upshot has centered around a perceived lack of confidence from the forward. Confidence that, admittedly, would grow with more minutes on the pitch.

However, not starting him in the first Europa League match of the season could have a similar, if not greater say in absolving him of his self-belief issues.

Starting in Austria would indicate that he won’t get the nod on the weekend. We’ve seen a few players do the midweek to weekend transition this season – professionals should be able to – but squad management is needed at this early stage.

Arsenal have the players capable of starting on Thursday and gaining a positive result, thus no need for Pepe from the off.

Nobody knows what’s going on in his head. Yet, establishing himself as a Premier League regular as opposed to a cup regular will be one of this targets. Featuring every week is the ultimate goal, but his fragile confidence will take solace from the idea of making the step towards top-flight regularity.