Mikel Arteta recognizes the fact that Nicolas Pepe is devoid of confidence right now.
After Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Dundalk on Thursday night, Arteta was pressed on why Pepe has not looked solid under him yet.
Arteta said, “Knowing Nico, I don’t think it’s something that worries him too much. It’s about him hitting his best, every single week. I believe this is where he believes he can do better and we have to try to help him.
“I think he’s so willing to do well and show everybody and first of all his team-mates, myself and then the fans that he’s a player that can make the difference every week.
“Obviously, he’s not been first choice in a lot of games but, to be fair, he’s played quite a lot of moments better than others.
“It’s about finding the consistency, not through the games but during the games as well, to be more insistent and be able to do the right thing in many, many occasions when he has to make the right decisions on the pitch.
“It’s nothing to do with his attitude. He’s a player who takes risks and he’s a very creative player, and it’s the most difficult thing in football when they all know what you can do as well, how much they want to prevent the space, the overloads that they generate to defend you, so creating a situation as well is complicated.
“But sometimes, it’s the simple things – the deliveries, the amount of situations that he’s able to create or attract and then make the right decision, to keep evolving that phase of play, the finishing, the position inside the box – that he has to be more consistent at.
“We are working on that and hopefully he will be doing that much more efficiently.”
Pepe scored an outstanding goal last night with his right, just moments into the second half.
“It is nothing to do with me,” Arteta added. “That was his action, he scored a magnificent goal. He’s been [unpredictable] a little bit more recently, going down the outside is something he can do.
“It’s just about when he attracts people as well and frees something, the last pass, the last delivery, which foot he needs to attack of the defender sometimes as well to make things easier for him, the starting position sometimes is not right.
“But he’s trying really hard, he’s a player who loves to play the game and we need to give him more help to try to be more successful.”
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