Mikel Arteta names Arsenal star who can have the biggest role to play in top four race

Mikel Arteta has hailed Nicolas Pepe for returning from the Africa Cup of Nations a ‘different player’ and is confident he can have a key role to play in Arsenal’s top four charge.

Pepe enjoyed a superb end to the 2020-21 season, scoring six times in six games but failed to carry that form into the new season.

The 26-year-old has scored just twice this season but enjoyed a bright campaign for Ivory Coast in last month’s Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice in four appearances.

Arsenal are currently in sixth place, four points behind fourth place Manchester United but have three games in hand to close the gap.

With the Gunners in a very healthy position, Arteta believes Pepe can replicate last season’s run-in and have a key role to play before the campaign is out.

‘Since he has come back from AFCON I think I have seen a different Nico as well,’ said Arteta.

‘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 give him a chance.”

Asked specifically what is different about Pepe now, Arteta said: ‘His attitude, his smile, the way he is communicating with everybody, his energy.

‘The way he has trained. His efficiency in training, his application. His energy has changed. I don’t know what it is. I think he felt important again.

‘Probably he felt like a proper football player that can win tournaments and felt: ‘Ok,