I don’t think ESR has been bad in the majority of games he’s played this season, not at all.
Talk of who excelled is a relevant point but IMO only for those that have shown they can perform to a high level in the PL already and that doesn’t include Pepe, he’s regressed from what ? Poor to even poorer?
That’s the biggest issue actually. I started to doubt his skillset a while ago, now I think he just isn’t good enough - technically, skill wise.
Most od the time he struggles to keep the ball when pressed, he doesn’t have enough strength to keep the man off the ball, and doesn’t have enough skill (like a guy like Mahrez for example) to “hide” the ball.
And dribbling also… In so many games he struggles massively to beat anyone one on one. And even in better games his dribbling seems so random, often I think even he doesn’t know how he managed to get past someone.
Finishing, which is his best quality out of all mentioned here, is also quite inconsistent.
Not to mention his crappy link up and passing (for most of the time).
I think Pepe is pretty decent and has occasionally has been our best player and, if you take away the price tag, he is worth keeping.
But if a club offered more than 30m, which seems unlikely, it might be worth selling him, although for that sort of money, would we get anyone better?
Like several others, it would be interesting to see how he would perform under a different manager, because he isn’t exactly the only good player that has struggled with form under Arteta.
On one hand, I do agree that players whose game is based on dribbling (& having a quick transition of play) will not be a great fit for a possession-based football. On other, you can see players like Mahrez, Robben, Ribery etc have shown they can modify their game to adapt to possession football when called upon.
Arsenal has been associated with possession football for a decade now. If Pepe didn’t come here with an awareness to adapt, then he made a poor career choice.
Can’t he use it to his benefit? His opponents expect him to cut to his left.
For a player who has the dribbling capability of putting opponents on their arse, we are just making excuses for his lack of decisive dribbling effort.
I know right. he expects himself to fail and when he does go past, he doesn’t know what he wants to do next.
He should rename himself to Nópé. That’s what I think and feel when he gets the ball.
I think it’s fair to question to what extent or % Arteta’s tactical direction and coaching has to be factored in when evaluating Pepe. We know Arteta’s system is a rigid zonal attack that suppresses individuality. We know Arteta hasn’t coached a side with a high level of attacking efficiency either
Not saying Pepe blameless but I do think he judged slightly unfairly, I see where the frustration arises. I want to see more but I think he needs a consistent run where someone like Saka need rest/benching
If we started to see more 442 on the cards I’d like to see Pepe as an option for one of the two forward roles, I know it’s a little risky but I think you could see more out of him closer to goal because it’s hard to deny he knows where the net is, would also give us more scope to play the likes of ESR or Odegaard in a wide CAM role and unlock defences from the flanks.
When is Pepe Pan going to make it here, maybe he’ll be a bona fide starter at age 30?
Even Martinelli is taking minutes from this dude, Pepe going out sad.
I still think he’ll have an important role to play at some stage this season, but yeah 70 mill on a bit part impact player is sad 
.
I think we should sell him while he still has some value. Arteta clearly doesn’t rate him that high.
Not sure what goes on during training sessions, but I guess he’s not showing enough in those either if Martinelli is called upon before him, send him back to Lille and ask for Jonathan David instead.
The only important role he can play is if he goes to some club in France or Spain or anywhere outside the premier league, gets a few games under his belt and hopefully does well enough to get us a decent price for him. He’s done at Arsenal IMO.
I don’t care what anybody thinks of Pepe it’s inexcusable that he doesn’t even get a minute of action anymore.
He’s brutal, but so was ESR and Saka today. It was worth a shot to bring him on. More than Elneny anyway.
Particularly in a match like this where we obviously will be looking to counter often, it really makes no sense how he doesn’t get more time. I get that Arteta wants more possession focused players but fuck me it’d be nice to see someone with some spark who can actually take people on and just drive towards goal for a change.
Basically, he’s nowhere near as bad ad his major detractors would have us believe.
It’s weird because our attack effectively looked like give it to Saka and let him dribble. And Pepe would probably have been a better fit for that
Pepe deserves more minutes but ultimately at times when he’s off it really is like playing with 10.
Saka was worse today than I’ve seen Pepe all season.
Yes it was against Liverpool, but he’s been poor for a while now, Pepe deserves his chance