Mikel Arteta plays it very smart with unusual use of Nicolas Pepe

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Mikel Arteta is playing things very smart with his use of Nicolas Pepe. The club’s record signing is a difficult one to manage.

Mikel Arteta doesn’t have an easy task with Nicolas Pepe. He is, after all, the club’s record signing at £72m yet doesn’t look quite at the level to be a consistent starter.

Pepe managed just five goals and six assists in his first Premier League season. Those are hardly ‘club-record signing’ figures, but Arsenal are hardly going to give up.

It’s clear, though, that Arteta has a strategy for the player this season. Pepe has only started one Premier League game and is instead the ‘star’ attacker in the Europa League.

The Ivorian has started all three games in Europe, scoring two and assisting another pair. He doesn’t quite look perfect but he’s producing goals consistently when he starts. He’s in a weaker team, playing against weaker opposition, but his role is a strong one.

And that is surely the best way to get him on the path to being a top player. In the regular starting XI, Pepe is lost behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

He isn’t allowed to be the star of the show and instead plays a supporting role. But it’s never looked like he’s comfortable as merely a support player. Pepe appears much better when he has the licence to do a bit of everything, rather than feeding a more prolific front pairing or feeding off scraps.

Take his Molde performance. Pepe scored one and assisted another but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The 25-year-old had the joint-most shots (4), created the most chances (4 – twice as many as anyone else), completed the joint-most dribbles (2), and wasn’t dispossessed once.

Those are the stats of a man who wants the freedom to run the show. No, using your record signing in your ‘B’ team isn’t usual. But if Arsenal ever want Pepe to be a star, building him up this way is surely the best method.