Time for Arteta to trust in Pepe

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Labelled as one of the most exciting talents in Europe following 22 goals in Ligue 1 for Lille last season, Arsenal stunned the world of football when they signed the Ivory Cost winger for a club record fee of £72million back in August.

Back in April, we discussed how he could be the new Eden Hazard, who joined Chelsea from Lille, but also warned that Gervinho came to the Premier League at a similar age and reputation.

All 3 players came to the Premier League  in their early 20s with very similar scoring records over the previous 2 seasons for Lille. Hazard scored 34 goals in all competitions, Gervinho 36 and Pepe 37.

Hazard and Gervinho had very different Premier League careers. One was one of the finest players to grace the league in the last decade, the other was a flop.

Half-way through his 1st season, Pepe has been closer to Gervinho than he has Hazard. Some have gone to label him a huge flop already following his huge price tag and justified the opinion of some that he was a penalty stat padder (9 of his 22 league goals came from the spot last year).

Misses against Liverpool and Sheffield bought back memories of Gervinho’s wastefulness. The Ghost of Bradford had returned.

Despite the misses, it did not feel like we were watching the incarnation of Gervinho

Gervinho was very technically poor. You would not catch him bending shots into the top corner or scoring free kicks. He could not pass, could not cross, could not shoot. He was a physicaly player. Quick, strong with a burst of acceleration that got him into space and made himself chances.

Highlight reels of Pepe at Lille had already shown his ability in dead ball situations, with numerous goals from open play from the outside of the box. This was a guy who was clearly technical sound.

From day 1 at Arsenal he was taking corners. He must have been showing something on the training ground to be our 1st choice set piece taker.

Against Vitoria de Guimaraes he showed he did have magic in his boots with two stunning free kicks. Both unsaveable no matter who was in goal.

But he was still struggling from open play. And successive managers from Unai Emery, Freddie Ljungberg and Mikel Arteta left him on the bench. He had fallen behind both Bukayo Saka and Riess Nelson.

He looked lightweight on the pitch, despite his 6-foot frame. Knocked off the ball to easy, he tired quickly and contributed little defensively.

Reports began to surface that he was not doing what was required in training.

Following being dropped to the bench against Norwich, Ljungberg told reporters “Pepe is a very good player, but I looked at what we did in training and what I see every day. And that is how I judge it.”

Pepe made his 9th start of the season against West Ham in the middle of December where he bent one perfectly in the top corner from just inside the box, reminding everyone that he has technical ability to go with his pace.

Against Manchester City he played a full 90minutes but looked laboured in what was his worst performance for Arsenal.

He failed to get off the bench in interim-manager Ljungberg’s last game in charge, and played just 12 minutes in Arteta’s first two games. The new manager deciding to start Nelson in both games and bring on Joe Willock before him.

Against Manchester United he put in a Man of the Match performance in Arsenal’s best result of the season, scoring with a first time finish.

Pepe was substituted off after 61 minutes and there are some clear conditioning issues there, but he is also clearly a big talent.

A lot will now come down to Pepe’s own mentality.

Does he buy into Arteta’s philosophy of demanding “120 per cent” commitment from every player? Is he going to follow Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s lead and start putting in a big defensive shift alongside his attacking prowess?

Despite having a slow start to his Arsenal career, Pepe has still has 5 goals and 5 assists in 1,245 minutes of football. That is a goal or assist every 124 minutes. That is a better contribution per minute that what Eden Hazard achieved in his first season (147 minutes) and the same as what Sadio Mane did in his first season at Liverpool.

What Pepe now needs is more game time. That will allow him to contribute more. Score more. Assist more.

With 17 league games as well as FA Cup and Europa League still to come, Pepe should be targeting to double what he has done so far.

20 goals and assists in his first season in English football will be a solid return and something that he can build on.

What Arteta now needs to do is trust in his record signing, play him. And Pepe needs to repay that by performing both on the pitch and at London Colney.

Pepe can become a huge player for Arsenal in the future. It is down to him to apply himself.

Keenos

2 weeks under Mikel Arteta – What has actually changed?

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Structure

The biggest criticism of Unai Emery’s Arsenal was the lack of structure.

He chopped and changed the formation so often that it was clear that he did not know how he wanted the team to play. And this translated onto the pitch as players did not know what their job was.

Our game lacked structure. Where we playing counter attacking football? Possession based football? High pressing football? A lack of cohesiveness led to gaps between defence and midfield, midfield and attack. We could not defend. We could not score goals.

Just a couple of games in and it is clear what Mikel Arteta is doing.

It starts with the formation. 4231. And then carries through to style of play.

Arteta clearly wants the team compact in defence with the team pressing as one. Not much space between the forward line and defence, it squeezes the oppositions around the half way line.

It takes energy and high fitness levels; something which will be addressed over time as players adapt to what Arteta wants.

Once Arteta has sorted out the defensive structure of the side, he can then move onto the way we attack.

Desire to win the ball back

Under Unai Emery it was too easy to get to Arsenal’s back 4 and get a shot on target. When we conceded as many shots on target as we did, it would only be a matter of time until one flew in.

The biggest problem is we did not defend as a team. There was not a desire to win the ball back from the forwards through to the defence.

Manchester City and Liverpool are successful due to their ability to win the ball back. The opponents can not score if they can not get out of their own half. Win the ball in the opponent’s half and you are already half way to goal.

From Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette up top through to the midfield and defence, every Arsenal player is now putting in 100% commitment to win the ball back.

A key change has been the return of Lucas Torreira in the middle of the park.

Getting Ozil ticking

It is only a couple of games in and we know Mesut Ozil can turn his form on and off like a tap, but in the last 2 games against Chelsea and Manchester United Ozil has performed well.

Ozil is clearly an emotional player and needs a manager who will put an arm around him, tell him that he loves him and that everything will be OK.

His big drop in form came off the back of heavy criticism playing for Germany, much of it with an undertone of racism.

At the same time he went from having a manager who spoke his language and cared for him in Arsene Wenger to Unai Emery, who comes across as a very cold manager.

A big criticism of Emery at PSG was the way he treated his star players. He struggled with Neymar’s ego (but who doesn’t?) and quickly lost the dressing room. Emotional intelligence is clearly not Emery’s strong point.

Arteta has clearly learnt from the likes of Wenger and Pep Guardiola as to how to deal with players. And it is working for Ozil. For now.

Players feel wanted

It is not only Ozil who feels wanted, but it is clear the entire squad have also bought into Arteta.

Man management is as equally as important as good coaching. The No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. In football it is not easy to quit, so players tend to down tools, their performance drops.

To be a success players and management need to be working in unison.

After every game, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola make a point of going onto the pitch and shaking every players hand as they come off. An arm around the shoulder of a player disappointed with his performance. A high five with a player who has done well. It makes players feel wanted.

If you want to be a success, players need to buy into what you are trying to do as a manager. They will only do this if they have bought into you as a person.

The way Arteta has got the likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles playing well in such a short period of time shows that the players like him. They believe in him.

The way Arteta spoke about Granit Xhaka after the Manchester United game sums it up. He has made the Swiss man feel wanted again. On the verge of leaving, Arteta rates him, thinks he is a key player, and has made his feelings clear on the matter.

Gone are the newspaper rumours that senior players were unhappy with Arteta’s appointment, everyone is pulling as one.

We should not go OTT over Mikel Arteta. The Emirates crowd had a similar positive bounce following Unai Emery taking over from Arsene Wenger. But the signs are good,

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Manchester United

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Arsenal (2) 2 Manchester United (0) 0
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 1st January 2020. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-3-1-2) Bernd Leno; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Nicolas Pépé; Mesut Özil; Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Rob Holding, Reiss Nelson, Emiliano Martínez, Joe Willock, Mattéo Guendouzi, Bukayo Saka.
Scorers: Nicolas Pépé (8 mins), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (42 mins)
Yellow Cards: Sead Kolašinac, Bukayo Saka
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 49%
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Attendance: 60,328

It is with a great sense of relief (and certainly not regret) that Black December is now firmly behind us; surely we all hope that 2020 will be far kinder to us than the previous year was. Well, it all starts again in earnest with this evening’s match against our old adversaries Manchester United, a game in which we must come away from with maximum points; as no more, no less will do.

The match could not have started better for us, when after just eight minutes, a Sead Kolašinac cross found Nicolas Pépé (via the back heel of Daniel James), who made no mistake from just ten yards near the United goal. Just what the doctor ordered, and so early in the game too; we now oozed confidence as we found our men well, and thus quickly seized the ball back when the opposition had it. We looked both clever and compact (particularly in the midfield area), and on the left side of the pitch, Sead Kolašinac was having the game of his life, getting in behind the Manchester United defence time and time again in order to get crosses in for the strikers. The visitors vented their spleen several times on both Mesut Özil and Alexandre Lacazette, but it mattered not as we continued to apply considerable pressure on the United goal. Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira were desperately unlucky not to score just after the half hour, and a few minutes later, Nicolas Pépé hit the post with a superb twenty yard shot that left David De Gea grasping for fresh air. Quite deservedly, just minutes before the break, Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored our second goal of the night from point-blank range after being the grateful recipient of a Nicolas Pépé corner (which was completely missed by the comatose Manchester United defence) that was flicked on by Alexandre Lacazette.

The visitors, as expected, came out of the blocks fighting at the beginning of the second half, but we successfully managed to slow the United attack down, whilst the defence held firm under pressure. After sixty-two minutes, Reiss Nelson replaced Nicolas Pépé, who to be fair, was having a poor second half, to try and regain control of the match before United clawed something back. It was becoming evident that Sead Kolašinac could not continue much longer with his damaged ankle, so young Bukayo Saka replaced him after sixty-eight minutes; a short while later, Manchester United had a penalty appeal turned down, which only served to make them more determined to score. But still we held firm, as David Luiz was doing a sterling job in marshalling his fellow defenders in the latter stages of the match. Alexandre Lacazette went down with possible cramp, and although Lucas Torreira was also in difficulty, Mikel Arteta decided (rightly so, it has to be said) that our striker was the man to be replaced by our final substitution of the night, Mattéo Guendouzi. As the minutes ticked away, Arsenal consolidated, and made various attempts to add to the score, but it was not to be. Thankfully, and deservedly, we took maximum points against an old rival tonight, and more importantly than all this, Mikel Arteta got his first win as Arsenal manager.

Tonight, the team were strong and confident in the first half, in fact they looked more than comfortable in their own skin, something that we have not seen from a group of Arsenal players for a very long time. David Luiz played like a man possessed, and his spirit and leadership went through the team tonight. It was also good to see Nicolas Pépé start a game, and although he was substituted in the second half, his impact was undeniable. They looked strong, but, as in the Chelsea match, went off the boil in the second half, unfortunately. But in the end we got the three points we desperately needed, and we appear to be on return to better things. Fingers crossed! Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Leeds United at The Emirates on Monday, 6th January at 7.56pm (FA Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.