Gabriel is the exception and not the norm. Pépé is not even a starter and he is far from the player he was at Lille. Saka has been starting lately and has done much better.I mean, Gabriel and Pepe just came from Ligue 1 and are playing. Arsenal is playing plenty of youth. This Saliba thing is dumb and they should really tell Arteta to sack up and play him, but whatever.
Campos bought him for 8M€ last summer
Yeah there's no defending Arteta's handling of the Pepe and Saliba situations.
You might think Pepe is not delivering but he's never playing games in a row while Willian does even though he's been ... let's say under average for agreement sake.
As for Saliba, every Sainte fan will tell you he's as good if not better than Fofana. Meanwhile Holding, Chambers or Mustafi will start over him.
When Willian sucks, a decent coach would at least try to play the biggest acquisition 5 games in a row over him don't you think?
You say he hasn't done enough to warrant playing time, what has Willian done except being signed by Arteta instead of Emery?
Unless your logic doesn't work for Willian who can play every game and suck without consequences.
Yes but you then don't apply the same logic to Pepe.
Well I do.Willian hasn't played well so he shouldn't be starting very much and it's a sign that Arteta has handled it poorly.
Pepe hasn't played well so he shouldn't be starting very much (and isn't).
I don't see any contradiction there.
Well I do.
You say Arteta is handling one poorly and the other rightly when none have done (according to you) anything to warrant playing time.
Well I said in the begining that not giving 5 straight games to get into a groove was a mistake. Willian had that chance, not Pepe.
That was literally my first post that you disagreed with.
Give me 5 games he started in a row this season.He's handling Pepe right because Pepe hasn't deserved to be playing more and isn't.
He's handling Willian poorly because Willian hasn't deserved to be playing and is.
Pepe has had 60 games at Arsenal to get into the groove and hasn't. I don't see why he should be gifted another 5 in a row just because.
Give me 5 games he started in a row this season.
Why can't he get the same treatment as Willian?
The worst aspect about this entire situation is that there's a good chance he would've surpassed Arteta's shelf life with the club, so we're allowing a WC potential CB to leave because a manager who's on the edge of getting fired doesn't want to play him. Now if Arsenal is going to shell out 60 million for either Upamecano or Konate, this makes sense, but so far that remains to be seen...Yeah there's no defending Arteta's handling of the Pepe and Saliba situations.
You might think Pepe is not delivering but he's never playing games in a row while Willian does even though he's been ... let's say under average for agreement sake.
As for Saliba, every Sainte fan will tell you he's as good if not better than Fofana. Meanwhile Holding, Chambers or Mustafi will start over him.
This is where I have to disagree with you, it's only "Arsenal's" fault that Pepe and Lacazette are insanely inconsistent. It's not Laca's fault that he misses sitters in every other match...it's the manager's fault for not playing him enough. It's not Pepe's fault that all he tries to do is dribble around four EPL defenders in every match and is a one-trick pony. It's Arsenal's fault he doesn't get enough time in the first time. You make some good points about Willian starting, but Pepe has played worse than Martinelli and Saka has (that's the simple fact). Now I don't think Pepe is a bust by any means, but having to incorporate tactics around Pepe to make him effective is a sure sign of a player that lacks talent and intelligence. The best players in the world are ones that can be productive in any sort of tactics; either Mourinho Berlin ball, Pep tik-tak, or Wenger elegance. I love both Laca and Pepe, I want to keep them and I want them to succeed so this isn't entirely an anti-players post. Laca showed some good skills under Wenger, but he never was a twenty goal striker that we need (he was more of the build up man like Giroud was before him).Pepe made a dumb choice joining Arsenal, Lacazette too (he really killed his NT career as well), I don't care really, it's on them.
I 100% agree he was unfairly benched, but he's had like three different managers and remained inconsistent. I think you need to realise is that an entire players career doesn't solely rest on the lack of development of being benched for like a month. I agree he's been given inconsistent minutes, but he's what he is at this point of time and it's an inconsistent player. Yes we all know he wanted to go to Atletico, but as you mentioned he would've been in a worse off situation so why not play for a superior club in the Arsenal? Greizmann was always going to be France's starter regardless of whatever Laca turned into (what I am implying is that Alex would've never ever been as good as Greiz is).Lacazette, it's IMO entirely Arsenal's situation. He was a very very good player when you signed him and after being unfairly benched, he suddenly was your best player once unleashed. Then your awful coaches never used him decently, just like the rest of the team.
But again, he wanted to leave Lyon at all cost because he felt it was THAT summer. He chose Arsenal out of spite when his Atletico (wrong choice too BTW) transfer didn't happen.
With Arsenal having Auba and Pepe, I just don't understand why we don't try more through balls like Liverpool does to wreck clubs. That's poor managing skills no doubt by our managers and why I haven't labelled as a bust. I think Pepe in Bielsa or Blanc tactics would make him into a World Class player that he showed at Lille. However, having to be in a perfect system for him still holds the point I wrote where he lacks talent and skill, where he's only effective like a substrate fitting in with its enzyme active site.Pepe also wanted to leave and go abroad. Arsenal was already a mess. Clearly he shows zero motivation to improve his situation, which is weird because he was someone who gave his all with Lille (and Angers).
Yes Pepe tries to dribble too much in the few minutes he has. But he also has zero movement around him. Zero offensive scheme.