Nicolas Pepe has been a major flop at Arsenal since his big-money move in the summer but Andre Arshavin believes that the player needs more time to adapt to life in England.
Arshavin said to 888Sport, as quoted by Express: “Pepe is a very talented player. He is very quick and a good finisher.
“Already he has done well in part: maybe not as much as he could but I see the potential and he will become one of the biggest stars in the Premier League. He will be huge.
“I used to say we need to be patient with him. He is still young, he came from another league and it is always different.
“The Premier League is the hardest league in the world I think, so you have to be nice with new players like him. He is someone who needs confidence and when you give him confidence he is better.
“He just needs time to understand how the league is and now we can see a really good Nicolas Pepe.”
Can Nicolas Pepe be termed as a failure?
Pepe has surely understood the difference between Ligue 1 and the Premier League but we think before the could settle down at the Emirates, Unai Emery was shown the door and a new manager was brought in which made things even more difficult for the winger.
And unlike Emery, Mikel Arteta has made it pretty clear that anyone who is underperforming has no place in his squad.
But having said that we feel, Nicolas Pepe will be given the summer break and pre-season to prove his worth once again and hopefully, he can use this time to get his peak form back.
While Mikel Arteta will most certainly not shy away from selling him off but the Gunners will find it really hard to find a club who will be willing to pay a massive amount of money for a Premier League flop.
So either the Gunners boss will have to persist with the winger and hope he comes good or the North London club will have to offload him at a loss.
