Pepe Off The Mark In France

chekohler (70)in Actifit • 2 years ago

Pepe has been given a chance to rebuild his career and market value in France, and hopefully secure a permanent deal away from Arsenal for a recent amount of money if he does well. That hope didn't get off to a good start in his first game, he started on the right wing for Nice against Marseille, but did not make any sort of impact on the game.

He also let Nuno Tavares on-loan from Arsenal get past the full-back twice to score and Nice boss Lucien Favre did not hold back on how unhappy he was with the performance.

In this second game against Lille, it wasn't looking good either, having lost the ball 3 times the manager started to get frustrated and it's the issue Mikel had with him at Arsenal. He would constantly lose the ball, not be able to beat his man and offer nothing in recovery

Pepe and Ramsey

Image source: - mirror.co.uk

Eventually, he started to find his feet a bit and clearly milked a penalty which he later converted against his former team. Nice have not had a good start to the season and they're going to need players like Pepe, Ramsey, and Barkley to step up and find the goals if they are to move up the table.

There is some real talent in the squad but it's a collection of players who have all had it too easy at their previous clubs and now that they actually have to show up and play, the rust is evident.