Arsenal supporters will hope Mikel Arteta can do with Nicolas Pepe what he has with Manchester City duo Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane. Arteta looks set to become Arsenal’s next manager, relieving Freddie Ljungberg of his duties as interim boss since Unai Emery was sacked a fortnight ago.
Former midfielder Arteta spent five years at the club as a player, two years of which he served as captain, and has been an important member of Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff at Manchester City since joining in July 2016 immediately after his retirement.
There, he has served as Guardiola’s right-hand man and has made a huge impression on the Catalan and everyone else behind the scenes at the reigning Premier League champions.
While there are some doubts about his ability to take over at a top six club in his first job in senior management, Arteta is said to have the credentials on the training pitch which will surely help Arsenal to rectify their continued slide in performance levels.
Indeed, one player who may stand to benefit from the appointment of Arteta could be Nicolas Pepe, who has struggled to maximise his talents since a club-record £72million move from Lille to Arsenal in the summer.
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The Daily Mirror report that Sterling will testify to Arteta’s coaching credentials with the 37-year-old crucial in establishing the England international as one of the best attackers in world football.
Sterling arrived in Manchester a club-record £49million addition in the summer of 2015 but it was at the Etihad where he asserted himself as a world-class forward.
In the last three-and-a-half seasons imder Guardiola, the 25-year-old has produced 74 goals and 60 assists in 168 appearances, across all competitions helping City to win five major honours including back-to-back titles.
Arteta is said to have worked closely with Sterling during that time and an example of his tactical intelligence is that he demanded the wide-man be switched from the right side to the left flank in an August 2018 win over Arsenal in which Sterling was the key performer.
The Daily Mail also report that having helped make a significant impact on Sterling’s finishing – for which he was widely criticised until the last two seasons – he was crucial in helping Leroy Sane to settle.
Sane, like Sterling, has blossomed at City but initially struggled to adapt after a £37m move from Schalke in 2016 and has provided 39 goals and 45 assists for the club in 134 games.
“It is normal for people to criticise me as much as they are doing because I am not making the difference in each match.
“I understand them. It is certainly up to me to reverse this situation through hard work.
“There are lots of aspects that I need to improve. Score more quickly, take the opportunities to score that I’ve been missing. It’s like that, that’s football.
“I also need to improve on the physical aspect because coming from France to England, there is this box-to-box aspect that you have to take into account.”
Arteta will not immediately get the same one-to-one time with Pepe as he did with Sterling and Sane, having also worked closely with Rodri this term, as a result of the extra commitments that come with being a manager rather than a coach and the hectic fixture schedule that they face in the coming weeks.
But Gunners fans will hope that slowly but surely Pepe can fully bed himself in and find the kind of form City’s forwards have long enjoyed to aid Arsenal’s hopes of ending their three-year hiatus from the Champions League.