Assists in FA Cup semi & final. Nice. Build on this next season.

Pépé’s first league start this season > week 5, at Man City.

First 4 games:
- 15 minutes
- 26 minutes
- 22 minutes
- 31 minutes

After that 1st start, next games:
- 25 minutes
- bench for 90 minutes
- 25 minutes.

Next game, start vs Leeds. Gets the stupid red card. Banned for 3 games.

Returns. Starts.
- first game, good game.
- second game, bad game but scores pen.

Next set of games:
- 19 minutes
- benched for 90 minutes
- benched for 90 minutes.
- 25 minutes
- benched for 90 minutes.

Starts yesterday. Scores.

“I wish he’d do what he did tonight more often. Problem is that he’s so inconsistent. Doesn’t help that he’s a pure confidence player.”

Of course he’s inconsistent. Lol. He’s not an impact sub player. Won’t find consistency with inconsistent minutes.

Don’t know how people can’t see that while Pépé himself has fucked up & is definitely complicit, the conditions have ensured that he’s stayed in the rot. In fact, once he’s showing any signs of finding rhythm, he stops getting minutes.

Let me show you what happened last season.

Arrives. Debut at Newcastle. Being eased in. 19 minutes.

Next game, 45 minutes off the bench vs Burnley. Confident, raring to go. Fine game. 1 big chance created. 4/6 dribbles. 3 key passes.

Starts next game at Liverpool. Great game. 7/10 dribbles. 1 big chance created.

Starts again vs Spurs. Brilliant game. Assists. 1 big chance created. 5/6 dribbles. 7 shots. 2 key passes. Brimming with confidence, excited to prove himself. Has all his usual dynamism. Willing to try things.

Next, Watford. Slightly above average game. Arsenal get battered.

Comes off the bench vs Frankfurt in the EL. Gets an assist and has a good cameo.

Starts vs Aston Villa next. Great game. Scores pen. 4 key passes. 3/5 dribbles. 5 shots.

Starts again vs Man Utd. His 5th straight league start (it has never happened again btw). Mid game.

Comes off the bench be Liege in the EL. Decent cameo. 24 minutes.

Starts again in the league vs Bournemouth. His 6th straight start. Gets an assist for the winner. 2/3 dribbles. Has a decent game.

<international break - scores>

Returns. Away to Sheffield. Starts. Misses that big chance but then has a great game. He’s buzzing. 5/7 dribbles. 9/15 ground duels won. He’s everywhere. Arsenal lose. Some people blame him for his miss.

Next. Off the bench vs Vitoria with Arsenal losing. Scores 2 FKs.

Next. Home vs Palace. Starts. Has a great game. 4/5 dribbles. 4 key passes. Once again, he’s buzzing everywhere. 9/13 ground duels won.

And this is where things suddenly get weird.

Benched for next game. League Cup vs Liverpool. Fine. Not a big deal. But what happens next?

Note that he’s coming off 2 great performances which caused everyone to tweet “Pépé is here” and really get excited that he would kick on.

- benched vs Wolves.
- 90 minutes in a pointless EL game vs Vitoria. He’s atrocious but gets Assist.
- 13 mins vs Leicester with score 0-2.

- 45 mins vs So’ton.
- bench vs Frankfurt.
- bench vs Norwich.
- Comes on at halftime vs Brighton.
- Starts. Gets a goal & assist.
- Starts. City batter Arsenal 3-0.
- benched vs Everton.
- comes on for 8 minutes.
- comes on for 12 minutes.
- Starts vs Man Utd. Scores.

So after those back-to-back games vs Vitoria and Crystal Palace (can throw in the Sheffield performance too) when he seemed to finally be settling, here are Pépé’s minutes in the next set of PL games.

- 0
- 13
- 0
- 45
- 90
- 90
- 8
- 12
- 90

It is at this point, with his confidence & form gone, that he suddenly gets 3 straight league starts. He has a torrid time (he’s very complicit). Arsenal are struggling as a team. They draw all 3.

He starts the FA Cup game vs Bournemouth. He’s bad.

Benched next game. Deserved.

Starts next game vs Newcastle. 1 Goal. 2 assists. 3 big chances created. 4 key passes.

Then 15 minutes at Olympiacos.

Starts next league game. Gets an assist. 4 key passes. But he’s clearly struggling now.

Then THAT Olympiacos game.

Then benched for Pompey in FA Cup.

Then starts vs West Ham. His form is clearly in the gutter. He’s awful.

And then the coronavirus break happens. You know the rest. Here we are.

But this. This is where it all takes a weird turn. This is ground zero. This is where his rep goes to shit. This is where the problems start. https://twitter.com/cerebrone/status/1354383716336988160