While the defeat to Aston Villa has taken the wind out of their sails somewhat, Arsenal are still having an excellent season.
Mikel Arteta’s side are top of the Champions League table, having won five of five, and still sit two points clear atop the Premier League table.
However, while most of the team are playing at the level expected, a few stars aren’t quite where the manager would want them to be.
This latter camp includes one of Arteta’s most significant signings, who, if he doesn’t start improving, could become Arsenal’s new Nicolas Pepe.
What went wrong for Nicolas Pepe at Arsenal
In the summer of 2019, after Unai Emery’s first season in the dugout, Arsenal decided to go big in the transfer market, spending what was then a club record fee of around £72m to sign Pepe.
While the figure did raise a few eyebrows at the time, it wasn’t considered too outlandish as, in 41 appearances in the 17/18 season, the winger racked up a sensational haul of 23 goals and 12 assists.
Unfortunately, the Emirates faithful would never see the talented international reach that level during his time in North London.
In his first campaign in England, the former LOSC Lille star managed a reasonable, if a little underwhelming tally of eight goals and ten assists in 42 appearances.
However, as it was his first season in a new league, and he produced a goal involvement in the quarter-final, semi-final and final of the FA Cup, fans gave him some leeway.
Unfortunately, he also failed to hit the heady height of his Lille numbers the following season, ending it with a tally of 16 goals and five assists in 47 games, with ten of those goal involvements coming in the Europa League.
The 21/22 campaign would prove to be his last in red and white as Bukayo Saka was now well and truly Arteta’s first-choice right winger.
The 30-year-old spent the next two years on loan, first with Nice in France, and then with Turkish outfit Trabzonspor.
Arsenal finally agreed to terminate Pepe’s contract in the summer of 2024, and the player who was supposed to be the club’s superstar attacker left with a middling tally of 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 appearances.
Since then, the Gunners have been a bit better at spending money, but there is one of Arteta’s signings who could end up following the Ivorian’s path, lest he improve, and quickly.
Arsenal’s new Nicolas Pepe
Now, it’s still early in the season, so making any concrete predictions about Arsenal’s summer signings would be unwise.
However, as things stand, the attacker who has somewhat underwhelmed since his big-money move, and could go down a similar route to Pepe, is Viktor Gyokeres.
Like the Ivorian, the Swedish international joined the Gunners for a fairly sizable fee off the back of a truly sensational season in a weaker league.
For example, the “absolute steam train,” as dubbed by analyst Ben Mattinson, scored 54 goals and provided 13 assists in just 52 appearances.
Moreover, while nobody expected him to recreate those numbers in England, fans would have expected more than what he has delivered thus far.
For example, even though he hasn’t been a total flop like some other striker signings this season, the 27-year-old’s return of just six goals in 17 appearances is underwhelming.
Furthermore, all four of his Premier League goals have come against relegation candidates, and in games against the big sides earlier in the season, he looked somewhat out of his depth. As Gary Neville said earlier this term, he’s a bit of a “misfit.”
Finally, with Mikel Merino contributing up top, Gabriel Jesus back in matchday squads and reports that Kai Havertz is set to come right back in as Arteta’s first choice before Christmas, it’s not difficult to see a world in which the Stockholm-born powerhouse becomes a rotation option.
That was evident against Aston Villa. Arteta relied on the Swede to make a difference, bring him on at half-time for Merino. Yet, in his 45 minutes on the field, the centre-forward only had 11 touches of the ball and completed just four passes. He didn’t even have a single shot.
With all that said, there is still plenty of time for the former Coventry City star to come good, especially if he starts the next two games against Club Brugge and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Ultimately, the next six months will be vital in determining whether Gyokeres becomes Arsenal’s next superstar striker or their next Nicolas Pepe.
Their new Ozil: Arsenal ramp up move to sign £88m “generational talent”
The incredible talent could be a real game-changer for Arsenal and become Arteta’s own Mesut Ozil.