Michael Owen Points Out Unai Emery’s Biggest Arsenal Problem

Michael Owen has pointed out Unai Emery’s biggest problem at Arsenal – a £72m record investment.

The former England international believes Nicholas Pepe’s lack of impact is starting to take a toll on the team.

“We’re talking about a lot of positives for Arsenal but there’s one negative niggling away at the moment and that’s Pepe,” Owen told BT Sport. “I was excited by him, I watched him in the French league, he looked a very good player. He started the season, first game he looks as though he had a bag of tricks. But he’s just gone off the boil and that’s a huge investment for anybody but it’s a huge investment for Arsenal especially.

“I would have liked to have seen him come on and play really well today against an average team, show his stuff and get a bit of confidence because that’s a concern I think.”

Arsenal legend, Martin Keown is also unsold on the Ivorian winger. He said, “If you think back to Arsene Wenger he would have never blocked a path of a young player. They are in danger of doing that with Saka.

“Pepe, is he going to get into the team? It’s a massive amount of money they paid for him and it looks like Lille are laughing all the way to the bank on that one. ‘It’s still early days and maybe the player will turn it around. But I haven’t really seen anything that I have expected to see.”