Nicolas Pepe cannot afford to have “one day of being lazy or late” at Arsenal, says former Chelsea forward Loic Remy.
Pepe shone in Ligue 1 for Lille. During the 2018/19 season, he got 22 goals and 11 assists from 38 games in the French league.
This encouraged Arsenal to break their club-record transfer fee to sign Pepe for around £72m. This broke their previous record of £56m spent to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
F365 FEATURES: Five clubs who should take the FA Cup seriously
Pepe’s spell at Arsenal has been underwhelming so far, though. The 25-year-old managed eight goals and ten assists in all competitions last season.
The Ivory Coast international has scored five and assisted three for Arsenal from his 20 appearances across all competitions so far this campaign.
Remy told GOAL that Pepe must work hard if he is to succeed at Arsenal:
“He was flying in Lille and he was the best player in the team. Then, when you get to the next step, the expectation is really high. You cannot have one day of being lazy or late. The intensity in big clubs is like that.
“You can’t complain and there’s not much time to adapt. You can’t get away with mistakes anymore like you can at smaller clubs. There are always players waiting on the bench to take your spot.
“They will be training their hardest to replace you and that’s the biggest difference between big clubs and a smaller club.
“For him, the whole team are having a difficult season. Arsenal is Arsenal, so I think they will get back to having good results even if there are no easy games in the Premier League.”