Interview

Pepe - How Arteta is helping me progress

Nicolas Pepe's influence is growing under Mikel Arteta.

Our Ivory Coast international has featured in every game since our head coach took over, and scored the opening goal during our New Year's Day win over Manchester United.

So what has it been like for Pepe to work with Arteta?

 

"Things have been going positively so far, we’ve got some good results and have been playing good football," the 24-year-old said. "There has certainly been some encouraging signs and we know that we do have quality and we have what it takes to do well on the pitch.

 

"Mikel Arteta has explained to me what he would like me to do on the pitch and he has shown me videos that have stressed the importance of my positioning. He has told me exactly what he would like me to do to help me progress as a player.

 

"We want to do well as an attacking force. We want to perform well on the pitch, score goals and get assists. As a team it doesn’t matter who’s getting the goals and who’s getting assists, but the important thing is we are playing well together and getting results.

 

"It’s great to play with such players [like Lacazette, Aubameyang and Ozil] and it’s been working rather well. We are good with linking up with each other and we’re capable of playing good football.

 

“We support one another on the pitch and as an attacking player it’s always great to have someone like Mesut Ozil feeding passes into you so it’s enjoyable."