Nicolas Pepe is another victim of big names struggling to make an impact in England since his big money more from Lille to Arsenal in the summer, when the North-London based club shelled out a club-record £72million for acquisition of his services.
Nicolas has not had the best of his first season in the Premier League where he struggled to make an impact in first half of the season under Unai Emery, coming into a marginal criticism for the same. Pepe has now contributed four goals and six assists in his twenty-four Premier League bows this season, and it seems he has earned the trust of Mikel Arteta, starting all but one of the last eight league games.
The pinnacle of his season probably came against Manchester United on the New Year’s Day after scoring the opening goal and putting up a lauding performance before being replaced on the hour mark. And Pepe’s improvement has been remarkable under Mikel earning him ire of the fans on various occasions.
Although that didn’t last long as Arsenal crashing out of Europa League in hands of Olympiacos earned Pepe ample of criticisms. Despite the poor first half performance, Pepe continually lost chances to put the ball in the net or pass it into a better possibility only to lost the ball in the critical tie.
With his struggles, Transfermarkt has re-valued Nicolas Pepe in December following his summer move from Lille as they now rate vory Coast international at £58.5million which is £13.5million less than Arsenal paid for him.
The respected website also feels Arsenal slightly over paid for him in the summer, valuing him at £67.5million when the Gunners signed him.
Although, Nicolas has plenty of time to come good at Arsenal and push his value way beyond what Arsenal paid for him in 2019. But at the moment, the Gunners aren’t getting the returns expected of him, especially after stacking the club record of club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, when they acquired him from Dortmund.
