Found a smiley
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It’s not bad. But Pepe already has two OAmoji’s, he has to earn his third by having a killer season, like Jacob predicts. Next year.
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Napoli bodied again.
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I don’t care what anyone says signing Pepe was a big club moment for us. He was just off the back of an absolutely insane season in France and I think we’ll see that form in the EPL before long.
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His performances against City and Chelsea were worth it alone. Especially against Chelsea, when was the last time we had a player with that much sauce? Alexis?
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Strongly disagree
Pepe cannot match a good performance by Alexis Sanchez.
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Absolutely. But in terms of trickery I think Pepe may even have the edge. The guy was bullying that Chelsea defence on demand. I’ve seen so many Chelsea fans change their tune about him after that performance. 
If he replicates the end product of Alexis he would probably be the best player in the league. I really hope we get to see cold Pepe soon. 
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Yip, at the time (and I am still confident he will be good for us), it was actually a pretty big coup as he was being linked with other clubs and had come off a great season as you say.
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I know you won’t agree but
Willian Auba Pepe is so much better for Pepe and the team than Aubameyang Lacazette Pepe
William is a great dribbler and can create chances, taking attention of the defenders away from Pepe.
Auba in the middle is a huge threat with his pace, again worrying defenders.
Leaves Pepe with big room to cause havoc.
Compare that with the current system, where Auba is awful at ball carrying and average at creating chances.
Lacazette takes one poor defender aside to grind on him or whatever he does.
And Pepe then gets triple-teamed and absolutely ruined as all attention from defences is on him as he is the only real creator of opportunities.
We’ve not helped him at all with the system.
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Also, as much as Auba scores plenty from the wide positions, I’ve had enough of our world class centre forward covering his full back. Especially when he’s going further into his thirties.
Fully agreed.
Willian’s defensive contribution also means Pepe can play a little higher up the pitch when out of possession. He was a killer on the counter with Lille and him and Auba could be a great combination.
A Willian-Auba-Pepe frontline has great balance - an elite goalscoring CF, a dribbling direct wide forward on one wing and a playmaker/creator on the other side who can help in ball progression and is also really good without the ball.
Willian also won’t always play. Moving Auba to CF opens up minutes for Saka and eventually Martinelli at LW, which is both of their best position. If Auba owns the LW spot, then our two brightest young attackers won’t get many minutes in the position for which they’re best suited.
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For sure. People bang on about his longevity.
Well he won’t last that long and we’ll have another shit contract to shift if we continue to make him do the bleep test out wide for 90 mins every 3 days next season.
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No excuses for Arteta anymore.
If he continues to still play Auba Laca Pepe as the front 3 he’s fucked it
Pepe will need someone to play it off with.
Can Auba really do that effectively? We saw Ozil float to the right before lockdown to support him but they still needed time to gel. Nketiah also struggled supporting Pepe.
Will be interesting to see what Arteta has in mind with a personnel adjusted to his needs.
We need that creative midfielder so bad. Internal (ESR, Ozil remontada) or external solutions.
It’s what will make us or break us.
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It’s a bit of a shame we can’t play them as our front 3, in all honesty.
They cost like 200mil between them!
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You can’t tho as two are strikers and we play one up front.
That game where we played Auba Laca Nketiah was disgusting. No wingers FC.
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The way you say it makes it sound like all 3 players making up the 200m wouldn’t get in our first team. Auba and Pepe are almost certain starters, and in that system Lacazette is a good bench option.
I’d you’re going to say anything it should be why did we pay 48m for Lacazette to be a bench player when we already had Aubameyang, but I think most of us already appreciate that point.
If we could get 35/40m for him I’d happily sell.