It was the afternoon of August 1, 2019, when Arsenal smashed their record transfer fee to bring Nicolas Pepe to north London for £72million.
Exactly a year on August 1 2020, Pepe produced his best performance in red and white to bring the FA Cup home for a record 14th time in the club’s history and prove just why the Gunners were so keen to announce that ” #PepeIsHere ” 365 days prior.
The afternoon got off to a sticky start with Christian Pulisic putting Chelsea ahead in the fifth minute of the game. Rallying a few more Blues attacks, it wasn’t long before Arsenal grew into the game and while Kieran Tierney, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were key to this, Pepe was even more influential in ensuring the side were a force going forward.
Over the course of his debut season, the 25-year-old has been accused of being too predictable. At Wembley, he was anything but predictable and massive credit has to go to Mikel Arteta for this, as well as Pepe himself.
“It’s clear that his consistency has not been at the level he can produce. He’s the first to accept that. That’s what I’m going to demand of a player of his level and calibre,” the head coach said about him on June 19.
“He knows that. He’s such a nice kid. He’s trying really hard. You have to accept as well, the timing and the way he has adapted for the first year.
“It’s taking the flash moments into a consistent model. That, for a creative wide player to do it, is a big task.
“Every detail has to be taken into account because it makes a huge difference. His mentality as well, his mindset has to all the time be like that; to win the game for the team. He’s one of the players in the squad that can do it and must take the responsibility.”
The shift in demand put on Pepe to try and make his game less predictable post-lockdown were clear instantly. Too often before the restart would he cut onto his left foot and to the detriment of the team, which was evident in the shock Europa League defeat to Olympiacos.
In his first start back against Brighton, however, he four of his five dribbles were round the outside of the defence. He finally cut onto his left on the fifth dribble and the work done previously had bought him time and space to bend the ball into the far corner – as analysed in more detail here.
Since the restart, the area Pepe has taken longest to develop is what to do when crowded out of his natural position. Against Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, dropping deep resulted in him either being hacked down or losing influence further upfield. That was not the case against Chelsea.
Frank Lampard’s side began the first half pressing Arsenal extremely high up the pitch, a method which saw them successfully turnover possession and hurt the Gunners.
On this occasion, Emi Martinez playing the ball out to Rob Holding is the trigger for the Blues to hunt the ball down. Mateo Kovacic, Christian Pulisic and Marcos Alonso close in as Hector Bellerin and Dani Ceballos arrive for support. Holding opts to move forward with Bellerin as Pepe drops deep.
Bellerin quickly moves the ball infield to Pepe who is being closely marked by Antonio Rudiger, one of Chelsea’s three centre-backs. With some luck after a miss-kick, the Ivorian retreats into his own box, taking Rudiger with him before passing to David Luiz when Olivier Giroud joins the press.
Pulisic, Kovacic and Alonso had resigned to retreat, with Alonso trying to rejoin the defensive line which is now misshapen because of Rudiger chasing Pepe.
After moving the ball on, Pepe doesn’t immediately go back to the right-wing. Instead, he follows the ball. Staying low-key, his presence in the highlighted space goes unnoticed by Kovacic and Jorginho while Rudiger’s attention switches to rejoining his defence.
While this happens, the ball is played up the left and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang picks him out in midfield and he is now the man driving Arsenal up the pitch from a completely unexpected point of attack.
In the early stages of the game, Arsenal used Maitland-Niles to exploit the space between Reece James [right wing-back] and Cesar Azpilicueta [right-sided centre-back]. Now is Pepe’s turn to take advantage, as he slides the ball through to the 22-year-old he is able to burst into the final third as a result.
Compared to the early weeks of the restart, the big improvement here was Pepe staying alive to different possibilities. Especially against Southampton and Spurs, when receiving the ball drop deep with his back to goal, he didn’t trust himself nearly as much. He’d either try to turn the defender and have a whole midfield to play through or set the ball back.
Going with the flow on this occasion made him less predictable as keeping the ball, shifting the point of attack and shadowing it allowed him to pick up pockets of space he wouldn’t usually enter, therefore giving him time and space to hurt teams even more.
Although these spaces were different from those attacked against Brighton, the impact was somewhat similar. When he finally decided to cut onto his left foot to whip crosses to the back post, there was more time to cause chaos with his deliveries.
In fact, when Arsenal finally got to grips with the game, it was Pepe they looked to turn the screw, whipping three crosses to the same area 2 minutes and 31 seconds
The first meets Aubameyang who nods across goal for Alexandre Lacazette.
The second is aimed towards Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles and causes Willy Caballero to rush out of his goal, completely missing the ball while a defender touches it away for a corner.
This is aimed towards Holding and Aubameyang [out of shot] and once again causes problems among the Chelsea defence.
Although these developments in Pepe’s game have been crucial in freeing him up more and making him a more threatening player for Arsenal, there’s one thing that has always been there, and was present again at Wembley – his trickery.
Blending these more refined aspects of the game with the ability to embarrass Rudiger with two outrageous backheeled nutmegs took his performance to another level. The silkiness of his dribbling on the edge of the box before nutmegging Andreas Christensen to win a free-kick was also indicative of the truly special moments that Arsenal shelled out all that money for last summer.
Had his goal ridiculously well-taken goal – which proved the importance of Maitland-Niles positioning yet again – stood, it would have capped off a perfect performance but an assist for the winner will serve just as well.
Like with Kieran Tierney, Dani Ceballos, Luiz and Arteta it’s been a tough first season for Pepe. Having to adapt to a new league under three different head coaches while being without a proper supporting right-back for most of the year, he has figuratively fought a battle with an arm tied behind his back.
365 days after signing, however, he gave his best example yet for why Premier League defences should fear him next season.
