Nicolas Pepe speaks up the relationship with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal

Pepe, who was Arsenal’s record signing when he joined from Lille in the summer of 2019 has endured a below par stint before and after the appointment of Arteta and was at the start of last season sent out on loan to OGC Nice.

Arsenal manager, Arteta has-been criticized for his treatment of the Ivorian in the media but Pepe has now come out to defend the former Arsenal midfielder.

Pepe said; “People say that he identified me as a player that wasn’t up to the level in his team, in his philosophy. It’s completely false. When he arrived, he had (Manchester) City’s philosophy. He had a squad that was filled with quality and backups in every position.”

“When he spoke to me, he said he counted on me, he wanted me to do this or that, and you have to focus on that. He improved me in every way. He spoke to me the whole time, I watched videos with his assistants all the time. He really believed in me. He said I had incredible potential, so we need to extract that potential,”

Pepe, who has 27 goals in 112 appearances for Arsenal since joining scored eight goals in 28 appearances while on loan with OGC Nice in the Ligue 1 last season.

He continued, “At the end of the first season, he spoke with me and told me to do this or that. The second season comes along, I was a substitute. I was going mad. How could I be a substitute when he said he counted on me? Everything is spinning in your head. I was a substitute for [what felt like] 10 matches. 

“It was at the time when they signed Willian. He is a number 10 or a winger. But he plays on the wing for like 11 or 12 matches in a row. My head turned, knowing that I had spoken with the coach and it wasn’t like that.”

“But that improved in the sense that he gave me a chance, I scored against Sheffield United at the Emirates. The confidence started to come back. I started to speak better, but it was a bit cold. I started to speak to agents, but we didn’t see each other like before. But it improved. It’s not true that he labelled me. Not true at all. He helped me in every way, on a tactical level, in terms of game intelligence because his philosophy requires a lot of intelligence. He knew my style of play wasn’t waiting in possession, it was cutting inside, it wasn’t waiting out on the right.”

“Before, I was a bit freer. I had to wait in my zone, and I wasn’t like that before. These are parts of my game that he tried to improve. He always wanted to help me with all of that, ” he concluded.

Albeit the future is still incertain as he remains linked with a move out of the club on a permanent basis this summer, the 28-year old maintains he has not been unfairly treated by Arteta, though there were days when he couldn’t help it but be frustrated.

Hassan Afolabi