Nicolas Pepe says Arsenal’s players can’t use disruption to the coaching staff as a reason for their poor performances and has called on his teammates to “wake up quickly” before the weekend.
The Gunners have won just twice in their last 13 games across all competitions and have, in the process, dropped from third to ninth in the Premier League table.
Sunday’s defeat further highlighted the gulf in quality between ourselves and reigning champions Manchester City with Pep Guardiola’s side barely having to break a sweat to establish a three-goal lead.
Pepe, who it’s widely acknowledged has struggled since signing for a club-record £72 million, was in no mood to sugarcoat the situation.
“Us players have to do better quickly,” he said.
“We have won only one game out of the last 12. It is not enough, we are Arsenal. It is about us, not the coach or anything else.
“We have to wake up quickly, starting against Everton.
He added: “Freddie tries hard, he talks to us, but nothing has changed much in terms of results. It’s down to us the players, not the coach. Freddie is close to us because he used to be a player not long ago.
“He knows what we feel so it’s easier for us to talk with him. We will continue to work hard to make things better and win again.
“We are not disturbed by the managerial situation. I had a similar situation in Lille and we kept going. With hard work, it will get better with Freddie or someone else.”
Arsenal are expected to announce Mikel Arteta as the club’s new head coach in the coming days.
Actions speak louder than words. Show you care, battling against Man City and losing we can take, playing like spineless shitehawks, we cannot.
I’m just picturing a spineless shitehawk now, it’s not a pretty thought, but aptly describes our current state of affairs!
The gulf in class between us and City on Sunday was actually so mind blowing to see live. I was sat in the first row of the North Bank upper, so basically I was looking down on the pitch from behind the goal. A proper ‘Football Manager’ view on proceedings. And watching the 90 minutes from that position really made it abundantly clear how good City are on and off the ball. Then in comparison how bad we are in and out of possession too. The way we currently play is still so saturated in Emery’s ideas. We pretty much… Read more »
Nuff said. You’re hired!
You’re bang on mate. We avoid the middle of the park like the plague and I think a big part of this is derived from building around Xhaka as key to our tactical possession schemes for the last 2.5 years under Wenger, Emery and now Freddie. He is basically a midfielder that passes the ball and nothing else. He is a good passer (although for a good passer makes way too many mistakes), but he can’t turn players and struggles when pressed and he isn’t mobile enough to effectively play one-twos with other players and move the ball through the… Read more »
I have thought alot about Xhaka’s weakness in the middle, especially compaired to Cazorla, who is everything you need from a player controlling and building possession through the middle- quick feet, one-twos, turning tightly to evade the high press, shielding the ball and moving it quickly. Xhaka is just the exactly wrong player for a central build-up system and Guendouzi as well, though he has passion for sure. I also really agree that this wing build-up severely restricts Pepe. I’m actually optimistic that years of learning from Pep will give Arteta the knowledge to improve us tactically. I think the… Read more »
@Dave M I don’t particularly think it’s a personnel problem initially. It’s obviously something Emery wanted us to do. So it’s not exclusive to when we have Xhaka on the pitch, it’s the way we try to play. I could tell that was the case because we were clearly really nervous in possession after City went one nil up early doors. So when we did get it out to the fullbacks, they didn’t ever want to turn on the half or full turn to progress the ball up the field because they were too afraid of getting caught. Which meant… Read more »
Great thought! Thanks.
Pepe I call him the king of the “jog press” he never sprints. He jogs to press jogs or walks back to his position after he’s lost the ball. He’s so slow to react to dangerous situations like he doesn’t want to be bothered. Meanwhile Martinelli is on the other side sprinting full speed to press and recover. But Auba Pepe Ozil just take a stroll back to position when the opponent is countering. I dislike these types of players. I think Pepe is bNg average I think iwobi is actually a better all round footballer than Pepe we shouldn’t… Read more »
Last Paragraph… Absolute Fantasy. You just emptied the squad and expect us to replace all of them with better players. How big is the NOT in “Not going to happen”.
There will be no 250 million because you could never get near that much for the players you listed as they are now all proven failures, and Kroenke sure as hell isn’t going to throw massive money at the problem again after being burned this season. We bring money to him, not the other way around.
Pepe, you have to wake up quickly!
They always say the right things, but then play like they’re clueless
I have stoped reading what the players says
The team needs to wake up and find some gumption..I still can’t believe Kolašinac ducked that ball on the line, next time he needs to pretend the ball wants his watch!
To be fair if he jumped he wouldn’t have got it anyway, and it was such a thumping effort had he blocked it with his head he’d be concussed. I doubt anyone here would have gone for that one, it’s easy to talk when you see it in slo mo
Translation: He’s not a bloody giraffe.
When Wenger left – We let the manager down. It was the players fault.
When Emery left – We let the manager down. It was the players fault.
During the Freddie reign – It’s not Freddie’s fault, it’s ours.
How about you all stop apologising and try and do something for the fans for once? We deserve better. Your manager deserves better. This club deserves better. So shape the fuck up and start showing us how sorry you are on the field.
I think Pepe will be a success in the long term at Arsenal, when he speaks he reflects really well and takes ownership of any problems. His attitude seems bang on.
So says the player with one of the worst work rates in the team. Take your own advice Pepe, wake the f*@# up!
I don’t get why you’re getting downvoted so much. It’s been painfully obvious to see Pépé provides zero cover for our fullbacks and barely presses or tracks back.
Not surprising in the least; fans on here pick on certain players and give others a free pass. Ozil may be weak and easily bundled off the ball but he tries to close down opponents. Pepe is quick but his attempts to close down are half hearted at best. But who cares, Pepe scored a great goal against westham and has a party trick he can pull off every other match so he’s fine
At just 75, it would be interesting to see what George Graham could do as a defensive coach:-) Seriously though, I would love to see a coach that simply worked on defensive shape and drilled them until they reach at least under 13s standard.
Memories of Colin Firth in Fever Pitch teaching his kids to play the offside trap.
More chance if they watch The Full Monty at present!
One thing a defensive style coach would do is instill more effort. It takes effort to be a good defensive team, and not necessarily talent.
We will see what Arteta has up his sleeve strategy wise, and man management/motivation wise. A bit anxious, but welcome to Arsenal world circa 2019-2020.
I don’t believe Arteta, Ancholotti, Koop, Pochettino or Pep could turn this lot into a well organised, cohesive, attractive team to watch. It took Klopp just over 3 years, and 6 transfer windows at Liverpool. Pep inherited the most expensive assembled squad in history, spend almost £200 mill, and finished 4th and potless, then spent another £200mill, then another €65mill in the January, to win a league cup and league title, and he’s hailed as a genius? Until Pep takes over a subpar set of players and builds a successful team, then I have huge doubts he wouldn’t crack, if… Read more »
Sounded like Pep was running out of steam before he had us to face. Thought we could have interviewed him on Sunday.
Maybe the result had something to do with it?
“Arteta will need 2-3 season to make us a competitive outfit again, we’re a fair way behind, and that’ll only happen if we can improve our scouting and recruitment.”
For real, a long 3 years awaits us.
I wish he was awake in the City game! The amount of times he, Ozil and Aubameyang let City players drift by them was mental. Even KdB commented on it after the game. Say what you will about Freddie but that was absolutely not the plan!
Have you got a link to where KDB commented on Arsenal
There is no link… oh, yes, Pep also spoke very badly about Özil, Xhaka and Kola after the game forgetting Xhaka wasn’t playing but who cares.
OMG, there is a link. Fake news?
Sorry Alex!
https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/16/kevin-de-bruyne-arsenal-manchester-city-11912668/
The problem is that 3 strikers can’t do anything alone against a very well organised defense and midfield. Especially since Arsenal midfield wasn’t pressing close behind them. The strikers must press, ok, i agree, but if the midfield doesn’t do it, what’s the point? How many time Gündogan had all the time in the world to organise his play in Arsenal half? Still because of the strikers?
Yes, quite the indictment of our attackers. Didn’t use the word lazy, but it was pretty implicit what he was saying. In hindsight, maybe Willock instead of Ozil would have given us at least more bodies in the midfield.
Ozil isn’t built for speed. He didn’t excel before Arsenal by being able to close down defenders with the ball. Despite the anti-Ozil “lazy” noise we do see him trying, but he is never going to make it. He’s a number 10 who wins matches by receiving the ball from midfield/wingers and plopping it in the perfect spot for the striker to score. But we don’t have midfielders passing to him unless he runs to the bloody sidelines to find them. Over there he has the same problems as Pepe. He’s tripping over a f***-ton of defenders who don’t have… Read more »
We have zzzzz to ? zzzz wake up zzzz quickly zzzzzzz ? ?
Hahahaha
It seems every season of late there’s something distracting our players. Wenger leaving/not leaving, the Özil situation, Ramsey’s contract, who will be the next captain, Emery fired/new manager coming in.
Does this happen in other clubs as well or a we just simply one of a kind?
Leicester City’s owner died in a helicopter crash!
Things happen in other clubs but I suspect they just get on with it. We’ve turned into a drama queen of a club and that applies to everyone associated with it…Owners, Execs, Players and fans.
Forget skill levels – this Arsenal team are just not thinking. For all the talent in the City team, they constantly stopped our breakaways with rotational tactical fouls. Then we allowed all three goals scored to go unchecked.
Was it their third goal when guendouzi said ‘oh, pardon excuse me’ to kdb instead of hauling him down.
Can’t agree more. What this team needs is more defensive drilling. Until our midfielders are consistently in the right place in order to make challenges (to win back possession or make a tactical foul) results will not change. The traditionally lower teams are now well coached and Arsenal because of lack of coaching rigour have been found out.
They will do better if they had a manager who can instill an element of fear in them.
All this Granit strolling off, Ozil kicking gloves, Pepe ambling about, it smacks of ill discipline.
A 10% harder work rate would bring us dividends if we can sustain it beyond 15 minutes either side of the half.
Thus far the managers appointed have molly coddled. Arteta likely the same.
BC what’s our excuse frankly?
Teams with far less depth in assets like Leicester, sheffield and Wolves are achieving way more this season than us, never mind city.
Pepe works hard, does smart moves, but is sometimes slow to release the ball. Like Aubameyang, his main strength is speed. But neither Wenger, Emery or Ljungberg want(ed) early attacks. In possession football, where attacks are built gradually, they are rendered quite average.
We’d make better use of all that speed if we operated like Leicester and just kept hitting long balls over the top for forwards [Vardy] to run onto.
Doesn’t work hard at all. Flaps his arms around when his moves don’t come off which is more often than not. Watch Laca or Alexis for work hard. Lose the ball, they hunt it back. Pepe is LAZY. And it has direct co-relation to our defense because he does not bother to come back enough which leaves fullbacks stretched or midfielders having to cover leaving gaps in the middle. He does track back (as does Auba) for short spurts but we need sustained effort. As I always said, they should be told that they will be subbed or judged on… Read more »
One thing that can explain why things are not just clicking – is a distrust or disgust as to the way the club is run or they simply don’t get a sense of identity and philosophy.
We need a full factory reset! KSE Out – someone who gives a shit in. Or simply gut the board and FEC and replace it with people who are – a) adept with the challenges of a modern club and the Premier League. b) forward thinking c) gives a shit about the club.
Nice thought but but full factory reset button doesn’t operate outside of Mr Robot.
KSE will not be walking any time soon.
Alas agree. We have to be prepared. I mentioned before when many wanted Wenger out thast as much as it could get better, it could also get very much worse. Wenger flattered to deceive in his final years compounded by toxic fans making it worse for him. BUT he was at very least a custodian of the club with sufficient stature to check against the owners. BUT the fans pulled him down and now we are left with no one tokeep check of the owners. Sanlehi for his part has consolidated powers preferring to appoint inexperience (Edu) instead of effectiveness.… Read more »
If we get Arteta, i just hope that the club realises that they will need to support him with getting the players he needs and removing the players he does not need. Without this support, we are not going to progress.
Some of these players are making mistakes that they should not be making even if the coach was banned for 3 games. They should be capable of taking the game into their own hands.
Without that type of player, Arsenal will not get better.
Agree. Need to get players that suit his vision. I suspect the reason Raul et al hung on to Emery longer than they should have is because they knew the players on the squad were not ideally what Emery preferred, they shipped out senior utility players in Iwobi and Miki that could have been useful this season and Emery probably warned the heirarchy at beginning of season it would be rough sailing. They were hoping it would work out because they botched the player moves and he and they knew it. Of course I feel like Emery made matters worse… Read more »
Probably won’t. Because 1) we are back loaded. We just spent 72m on a frankly as of now over rated Pepe. And 27m on a non existent Saliba. This is a commitment of 20m for the next 4 windows as is. 2) We have outstanding issues Unresolved last summer at Cback and at CM. Meanwhile we have a huge collection of less than adequate Cbacks we have to cull but which may prove difficult prohibiting additions in other areas. 3) We will be out of CL 4) We will more than likely see key departures. I don’t think Arteta is… Read more »
He needs to wake up quickly. Insufficient off ball work (Same goes for Ozil and Auba. They put it in too sporadically and do not protect the ball enough) This clown Pepe every time he takes on someone (and more often than not loses it), he puts his arms in the air, looks to the refs as if they were the one doing something wrong. then Slowly ambles back to defense. I said it in the summer, a big risk for Sanlehi to spend 72m on a player which may satiate his hunger. Far better to have bought cheaper options… Read more »
Pepe needs to wake up and realise he’s actually got a right foot. I can’t believe in this day and age we spend £72 mil on a one footed player. I had the pleasure of being at Mecca on Sunday and just watching how Citeh ‘stretched’ the pitch was brilliant. We never did that, Pepe never ran into the channel, granted AMN never put the ball there but why not?. We’re not good to play through Citeh so why not go down the wings, turn their defence and push us higher up the pitch….football should be a simple game….
I see a lot of very far reaching conclusions of our state as club and team, based on the City performance. Remember that we lost vs Brighton, without much to argue about on the day, yet no one would say this shows a difference in quality, the difference is in mentality, belief and harmony. The same goes for comparing us with city, had we had real belief, the right mentality and harmony, the game would look very different. We may well have lost 3-0 still, and yes City have a stronger squad but above all they have a confidence and… Read more »