3 players who deserve as much blame as Granit Xhaka for Arsenal's poor performances

#1 Nicolas Pepe

Nicolas Pepe has struggled for form at Arsenal

It’s fair to say things haven’t quite set alight in the way they were meant to for Nicolas Pepe. Arsenal’s £72million signing has failed to score a single goal from open play in 14 appearances. Yes, he needs time to acclimatise to England but for the money that’s been paid, Arsenal fans expected more. The Ivorian was billed to be the complementary piece to Arsenal’s already star-studded attack. Instead, the record signing has been outshone by an 18-year-old Bukayo Saka. It’s not just that Pepe hasn’t played well, he’s not even showing signs of being the player his biggest admirers said he would be.

In 14 appearances, the 24-year-old has scored three goals and provided four assists, but when you consider all his goals and three of those assists were from dead-ball scenarios, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. If Arsenal aren’t able to marshal a competent defence, then the very least they could do is outscore their opponents. And that’s not an unreasonable request when you have one of the hottest strikers in world football in the team, alongside Alexandre Lacazette and the most expensive player in African history, Nicolas Pepe.