Mikel Arteta praises Arsenal’s Nicolas Pepe, says his mentality is improving

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Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has praised Nicolas Pepe for his improvement and cited a better mentality as being key to the Ivorian’s development.

Pepe has started to perform on a more consistent and regular basis for the Gunners. It’s been a marked improvement from the initial form he showed since making a big-money move from Lille.

And Arteta, speaking ahead of tonight’s clash with Benfica, believes Pepe is getting better and deserves credit.

“I’ve seen a lot of things, in his mentality, the way he approaches every training session, in his understanding of the game as well,” Arteta said.

“It’s true that he has patches where he’s played more than at other times. He has had the opportunity over the last couple of months that probably every player has been seeking to have but I think overall there is a lot of progress with Nico.”

Pepe has scored four times this term, just one shy of his total for all of last season. He’s also started four of the last five games, completing the full 90 minutes on three of those occasions.

TBR View: Pepe has improved and is starting to look like a top player on his day

Of course, there is still room for improvement for Nicolas Pepe at Arsenal. He needs to add more consistency, more goals, and more assists as well – he’s yet to supply a goal this term.

However, things are looking up. He’s still young enought to keep developing and he’s clearly enjoying life under Arteta.

Gunners fans will hope for more of the same from Pepe in the coming weeks as they look to make a late push to seal a European spot.