Many Arsenal fans have critiqued Nicolas Pepe for his time at the Emirates and his performance over the weekend as the Gunners slumped to a 2-2 draw at Watford.
Arsenal were 2-0 up within the first half thanks to two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, however, some poor Arsenal defending and sustained pressure from Watford saw them rightfully earn a point at Vicarage Road, and they could have even hoped for more, considering they had 31 shots to seven – a club-record for Watford, per BBC.
Arsenal lined up with a 4-3-1-2, according to Transfermarkt, which included recent £72m signing Pepe playing as part of a two man attack.
The Frenchman, who signed for a whopping £72 million back in the summer transfer window, appeared in his fifth league game for Arsenal in only his third start, and despite WhoScored’s algorithm giving him a healthy 7.1/10 rating from his performance, many Arsenal fans were far less impressed.
A lot of fans on Twitter were critical of both Pepe’s performance and are starting to regret signing him this summer, with the Ivory Coast international still yet to open his account for goals and he only has one assist to his name.
Here are some of the responses below, including one fan calling Pepe an underweight Alex Iwobi, who left for Everton this summer…
We should hav signed Ndombele instead of Pepe tbh
— GyokeresEra (@mfarez27) September 16, 2019
we expect to have Nicolas Pepe, what we got is Pepe Julian Ozima. #AFC
— C. Santana (@SantanaCasrol) September 16, 2019
Auba saying stuff and yes scored twice. But 2nd half himself & pepe didnt relieve pressure or hold ball up at all.
Odd we didnt hit some longer balls & turn them.
Anyway games gone, played poor but got a point. #afc
— robdagooner (@RobWoodfin1) September 16, 2019
I didn't expect him to come back on in the second half. I expected Lucas. Could have subbed Pepe. AMN had a nightmare. Always exposed. Iwobi wasn't sold for this.
— DD (@doysol_) September 16, 2019
https://twitter.com/AFCSamueI/status/1173335944650534914?s=20
https://twitter.com/Iatzhr/status/1173510620001517569
https://twitter.com/tundebabs1/status/1173337029301739521
