Thierry Henry slams Arsenal flops for letting Nicolas Pepe down as he launches staunch defence of £72m winger
Sponsored by
THIERRY HENRY has defended Arsenal's flop record £72million buy Nicolas Pepe - and instead blasted the whole team after a series of abysmal displays.
Forward Pepe has only scored in two of his 15 appearances as he has struggled to cope with the demands of the Premier League following his big-money move from Lille.
And Gunners legend Henry has leapt to the defence of Pepe, with his and the team's confidence hitting rock bottom.
In an interview with he said: "When you arrive like that, you’re always going to be talked about, and people are always going to target you.
"He needs to make sure he doesn’t listen to that and go out and perform.
"People need to forget about the price tag.
";He didn’t ask to be bought for that amount of money himself.
"It’s not always easy to arrive in a team, adapt to a new style of play.
"The Premier League, as we know, is not the same as the French League or any other league, by the way.
"So he needs to adapt to that. We need to give him time.
"People like to highlight the player but if the team were playing a bit better, maybe he would be playing a bit better.
"At the minute, it’s not a Pepe thing, it’s an Arsenal thing.
"Hopefully he and the team can get better so we can get in the top four again."
The pressure is on boss Unai Emery on the back of a miserable run.
Emery's men have just one win in seven and now lie nine points adrift of Leicester City in the race for a top-four spot.
They have only kept one clean sheet in the Prem since their opening day win over Newcastle.
Latest Arsenal news
And they crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Liverpool's kids after blowing their lead in injury-time.
Compounding their season, Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka was axed as skipper after swearing at fans and is set to leave in January.