Robert Pires has urged Arsenal fans to be patient with their record-signing, Nicolas Pepe.
The 24-year-old came on as a substitute in Arsenal’s 0-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
He has played in 5 games for the Gunners so far but still has not found the back of the net. Former Arsenal player and current Sky Sports pundit, Charlie Nicholas labelled his performance in the 2-2 draw against Watford as “dreadful”.
Nicholas said, “Nicolas Pepe was dreadful against Watford. How Emery took Mesut Ozil and Dani Ceballos off ahead of him [Pepe] was beyond me.”
Robert Pires believes it is too soon to judge Pepe so harshly. When speaking to Reuters, he said, “With Lille, he was fantastic. Last season he was one of the best players, he scored 21 or 22 goals. He’s a great player.
“Now he’s playing for Arsenal in the Premier League and he needs to adapt. It’s so difficult, very tough. So I want to say to the fans you need to be patient with Pepe.”
Arsenal beat a lot of top clubs to Pepe’s signature, also paying out £72m to LOSC Lille. Expectations were high for him to immediately start firing on all cylinders after his 22-goal stint in the Ligue 1 last season.
However, it would be unfair to judge the player just yet. Yes, his fortunes have not been favourable so far in front of the goal but he has shown a lot of offensive pedigree. The Ivory Coast international put in a solid display against Liverpool in his first start for Arsenal and is simply taking a fair bit of time to adapt to the Premier League.
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