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#3 Dropping Pepe was a mistake
While you could question many of Emery’s decisions recently – the furore over Granit Xhaka’s appointment and then removal as club captain continues – perhaps the most baffling one today was his choice to move record signing Nicolas Pepe to the substitute’s bench.
Sure, Pepe hasn’t hit the ground running as some might’ve hoped, but the Frenchman is clearly a talent and he’s slowly been improving over the past few games.
Against Vitoria SC on Wednesday it was Pepe's flawless free-kick that set up Shkodran Mustafi’s headed goal. And while Emery’s decision to switch to a 3-5-2 system today may have been driven by a wish to nullify the influence of Leicester’s outstanding full-back pairing of Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira, sticking to a 3-4-3 in order to slot Pepe in surely would’ve been a smarter idea - especially if the plan was to catch the Foxes on the break.
Pepe did make an appearance from the bench, but giving him just 14 minutes in the game – with Arsenal already a goal down – was probably never going to work. It feels like Emery just doesn’t know what his best team is at the moment, which is highly worrying. And to remove Pepe, who has arguably been his best player lately, seemed like an insane decision.
