Arteta backs Arsenal outcast to have a strong finish to the season

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has backed Nicolas Pepe to have a strong end to the season after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Ivory Coast international joined the Gunners for a club-record £72m fee in 2019 and has failed to live up to his hefty price tag.

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He has impressed in fits and starts but has found 2021/22 a particularly challenging campaign.

Pepe started four of Arsenal’s first five Premier League games this season but has only been named in the starting XI once since then.

With only 19 league minutes played since the start of November, the 26-year-old represented Ivory Coast at AFCON last month.

The Ivorians were knocked out in the Round of 16, losing to Egypt, as Pepe scored two and assisted one in the tournament.

Mikel Arteta says he’s seen a different Nicolas Pépé since he returned from the African Cup of Nations. pic.twitter.com/q5DHmWM3aq

— Connor Humm (@TikiTakaConnor) February 18, 2022

And Arsenal manager Arteta has revealed that Pepe has looked “different” since returning to London Colney and has backed the ex-Lille winger to have a strong end to the season.

“Since he has come back from AFCON I think I have seen a different Nico as well,” Arteta said (quotes via 90min).

“I don’t know what it is, probably he has realised the importance of the end of the season for him. He had a brilliant end of the season last year. He can replicate that.

“We need him at his best because everybody is going to contribute. We are a really short squad at the moment and we need it and hopefully he has understood that we want to play him. I don’t want to have a player like him sitting on the bench and not using him and the moment I have chances, I  want to