{"id":1118026,"date":"2019-12-01T19:56:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T19:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1118026"},"modified":"2019-12-01T20:07:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T20:07:04","slug":"arsenal-freddie-ljungberg-worrying-verdict-nicolas-pepe","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/arsenal-freddie-ljungberg-worrying-verdict-nicolas-pepe\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal interim boss Freddie Ljungberg delivers worrying verdict on Nicolas Pepe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Freddie Ljungberg says watching Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 in training was the reason behind not bringing him on against Norwich City.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Ivorian winger became the Gunners&#8217; most expensive acquisition when they paid Lille a reported \u00a372m for his services in the summer.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Pepe at Arsenal: Five key things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pepe is Arsenal&#8217;s most expensive player after he joined from Lille for a reported \u00a372m.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s since gone on to make 16 appearances in all competitions, with nine of those being starts.<\/li>\n<li>To date, Pepe has registered three goals and four assists.<\/li>\n<li>He was an unused substitute in their 2-2 draw at Norwich City.<\/li>\n<li>Ljungberg admitted what he saw in training was the reason behind him not coming on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7437001<\/p>\n<p>However, to say he&#8217;s struggled is an understatement \u2013 Pepe has started in just eight of Arsenal&#8217;s opening 14 league outings with the last coming against Crystal Palace in October.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, he&#8217;s been an unused substitute twice, in a 1-1 draw with Wolves last month before Ljungberg&#8217;s debut as interim boss at Carrow Road.<\/p>\n<p>Both games saw the north London side forced to chase a late winner but former manager Unai Emery and his successor both prefered Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli ahead of Pepe.<\/p>\n<p>There were murmurings Emery was unconvinced by Pepe but with Ljungberg now at the helm, many felt he&#8217;d be given a fresh chance. However, the Swedish tactician was forthright in explaining his decision not to use him.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sacked or Safe? Every Premier League Manager Ranked\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/05UFU_XkVpE?start=39&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pepe&#8217;s a very good player but I try to go off what I see in training and what&#8217;s being done every day and that&#8217;s how I judge,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football.london\/arsenal-fc\/fixtures-results\/arsenal-norwich-ljungberg-full-transcript-17346577\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal&#8217;s draw with Norwich leaves them eight in the Premier League, seven points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners host Brighton and Hove Albion on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freddie Ljungberg says watching Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 in training was the reason behind not bringing him on against Norwich City. The 24-year-old Ivorian winger became the Gunners&#8217; most expensive acquisition when they paid Lille a reported \u00a372m for his services in the summer. Pepe at Arsenal: Five key things to know&#8230; Pepe is Arsenal&#8217;s most expensive&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1118054,"parent":0,"menu_order":4070,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Nicolas Pepe: Ljungberg delivers worrying verdict on Arsenal record signing","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Freddie Ljungberg says watching Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 in training was the reason behind not bringing him on against Norwich City.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1118026","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nicolas Pepe: Ljungberg delivers worrying verdict on Arsenal record signing<\/title>\n<meta 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