Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe and Aubameyang dilemma no such thing

Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Wolves conjured up as many positives as it did negatives. 46 of the best minutes of football with Nicolas Pepe scoring a worldie and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang returning from compassionate leave was met with red card ruin and three points dropped.

Heading into Saturday’s Premier League showdown with Aston Villa, the goalkeeper situation is distressing. It appears the frail Runar Alex Runarsson is set for his full Premier League debut with Bernd Leno suspended and Mat Ryan crocked.

Add to that the growing concerns over Kieran Tierney’s perennial niggles and the situation isn’t as rosy as it was seconds before half-time at Molineux.

Amid all the fitness headaches there is a welcome head throb facing Arteta, the like of which hasn’t been one for the manager to ponder over this season. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is back and available, thus his usual slot on the left-wing is a given, right? Right?

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Nicolas Pepe has to start for Arsenal over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Aston Villa

The notion that the captain shouldn’t be chosen when fit has been dabbled with on occasion this season. Just as he grappled with bluntness of his own, so too did the rest. Piecing together a plan to make Arsenal more threatening in the final third coughed up a variety of personnel changes, many of which didn’t involve Nicolas Pepe.

Oh how times change.

Three Premier League matches on the spin and the closest Arsenal have come to seeing 2018/19 Pepe is staring right at them.

Consistency has been the buzzword attributed to Pepe since the moment he walked through the Emirates doors – one week he’s electric and three days later his fuse has gone. Southampton away was as good as fans have seen from the Ivorian this season, but learning from previous mistakes, any hype was reserved for the following fixture.

Manchester United came to north London and Pepe’s strength on the counter was evident. His movement on and off the ball improved vastly and two efforts at goal flew just wide of the post. Criticism for those misses was slightly reserved as he usually can’t even get into the positions to fire the trigger. Once again, progress.

Then comes the Wolves clash. Nelson Semedo was at sixes and sevens trying to keep up with his aggressive running. Most notably, his combination play was exemplary. A standout weakness in to his game that has been meticulously fine-tuned.

There is little doubt he would’ve seen the game out were it not for the dismissals, and even up until that point, he maintained a high level of performance.

Now rests a decision to be made for Saturday. A simple one.

Why Nicolas Pepe Should Start Ahead of Aubameyang

Nicolas Pepe has to keep his place. If that is at the expense of Aubameyang, so be it. It’s simply down to form.

Witness to individual outings such as the three seen over the previous fixtures, it’s telling of how Pepe has performed in an Arsenal shirt that piecing together three in succession only conjures up those just passed.

Bukayo Saka has cemented his place as the right-winger in the team, leaving Pepe to take up an unusual berth on the opposite side. Not a quintessential winger by any means, his strengths lie inside the full-back so for that reason he’s better suited making diagonal runs at goal onto his favoured left foot.

Confidence coupled with positioning has been down to this recent revival, all tied together with persistent coaching. Arteta worked wonders under Pep Guardiola in augmenting Raheem Sterling’s craft, an integral intervention. An insistence of practicing his right foot and what offensive actions to carry out is seeing a similar impact with Pepe. Turns out, by the way, he actually has one.

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The caveat remains that Pepe can only be effective when he’s in an effective team – a likely one at that – and when all is on-song with the side the bi-product is an wonderfully gifted 25-year-old.

Arteta even hinted that his mind on which of the two should start has already been made up:

"“At the end of the day, we have to play the players who are in the best form and everybody has to earn the right to play and participate in the games,” he told the official Arsenal website."

Building up to this point, dropping Pepe will reset the progress made back to square one.

While detrimental to his confidence, it will limit the team in equal measures. Arsenal need to win on Saturday and in order to do so must play their best players at this present time. Kieran Tierney will likely miss out and Cedric and Pepe have struck up a decent partnership on that flank. His combinations down that side are head and shoulder above the same interactions on the right. There can be no argument that this is the Ivorian’s moment.

Whether he has a stinker or not is irrelevant. It’s about man-management and if Arteta explains his reasoning to Aubameyang there will be no qualms.

Keep this wave Pepe is on in motion. No need for unnecessary disruption, even if it is the captain.