Official: Nicolas Pepe Signs

Sina wrote:

Nicolas Pepe out here balling  pic.twitter.com/P9Ce88cKX1

— seanㄣ⃒ (@anelkeh) May 18, 2019

if we were allowed to make only one signing ........

Pour ça et pour tout le reste, merci Nico pic.twitter.com/WUXKLEMYxE

— LOSC (@losclive) August 1, 2019

NICOLAS PEPE - Welcome to Arsenal:

Nicolas Pepe Top 100 Ridiculous Skill Moves:

If you were standing on a dusty North Eastern Parisian touchline at the start of the decade, you might just have spotted a young Nicolas Pépé taking his first steps in club football. Born in nearby Mantes, Pépé joined Solitaires Paris-Est as a teenager, but in a very different guise to the marauding winger Lille fans know today. “We didn’t have a good goalkeeper at that time, so he played in goal. As soon as we went 3-0 up, he came out.” Guy Fraineau, president of Solitaires, told the Bleacher Report in April, “He played in goal for a whole season.” Instead of joining the ranks of Ligue 1 goalkeepers since, Pépé is beating them at will.

Initially not seeing football as a viable career path, as a goalkeeper or otherwise, Pépé told Onze Mondial that “everything changed” during his goalkeeping teens when his father, a prison guard, asked for a transfer away from Paris’ 19th arrondissement, eventually landing in the comparatively tranquil Western town of Poitiers. “That’s when I started thinking about football, I saw that I had qualities. I changed positions and realised that I could become a professional footballer.”

Spotted by the local then Ligue 2 club Angers in 2013, much has changed for Pépé. A supremely rapid and skilful forward with a rasping strike and a calm finishing ability, Pépé’s oddly spindly legs provide an unusual gate and a sense of unpredictability that has become increasingly terrifying for French top tier defences of late.

Admitting to Onze Mondial that “before I arrived at Angers, I didn’t really know tactics. I was shown how to position myself with and without the ball, how to take the ball. I did not realise it was so important.”

THREAD – A short statistical profile on NICOLAS PÉPÉ, in comparison to Right Wingers from Europe’s Top 5 leagues.

CONTENTS:

1.OVERVIEW
2.ATTACKING STATS
3.PASSING STATS
4.CONCLUSION#NicolasPepe #Arsenal #AFC #PL pic.twitter.com/m91zAMFlN0

— fbtyics (@fbtyics) July 31, 2019

Pepe’s shooting all seems to pattern. LOW finessed shots into lower-left corner of the Goal, cutting in from the right hand side.#NicolasPepe #Arsenal #AFC #PL pic.twitter.com/iIWDPxffbk

— fbtyics (@fbtyics) July 31, 2019

33 - Nicolas Pépé was involved in 33 goals in Ligue 1 for Lille last season; only three players within the top five European Leagues were involved in more: Messi, Mbappé & Quagliarella. Eurostar. pic.twitter.com/FwjZqna0Y1

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 31, 2019

Nicolas Pepe: Only Allan Saint-Maximin (143) and Hatem Ben Arfa (116) completed more dribbles than Pepe (101) in Ligue 1 last season

For more player stats -- https://t.co/eyJ610HdfT pic.twitter.com/ed8ZDkt8vT

— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) July 31, 2019

Jay29 wrote:He'll be wearing the no. 19.

Incidentally, Lacazette, Aubameyang, and Pepe is now the most expensively assembled front three in PL history. Chuck Ozil into the mix, and Arsenal will have a front four that cost them £230.5m.

El Gunner wrote:can't believe we signed him. where were the other big clubs?

El Gunner wrote:can't believe we signed him. where were the other big clubs?

Art Morte wrote:

El Gunner wrote:can't believe we signed him. where were the other big clubs?

Daniel "Boy who cried Brexit" James: 2 goals

Nicolas "Cola Pee Pee" Pepe: 0 goals.

Nicolas Pépé - The Start At Arsenal (2019/20):

Sina wrote:

Nicolas Pépé - The Start At Arsenal (2019/20):

how do you type é btw? i thought Ö was hard enough

Myesyats wrote:He's like Dembele but with a brain. Very smart and talented player.

RealGunner wrote:He is constantly top in the dribbles, final passes and chances creation rank for us but like thimmy said he rushes too often in the final third. It happens to young players with big price tag.

No issues from any Arsenal fans about him so far.