Thierry Henry has defended Nicolas Pepe’s start at Arsenal and believes the winger has struggled due to the poor performances of Unai Emery’s side. The Ivorian joined in a £72 million deal from Lille in the summer but he has been unable to make an immediate impact with the Gunners.
The Ivory Coast international has scored just once in 11 Premier League appearances so far but Henry is adamant that Arsenal’s failings under Emery have made it difficult for the winger to thrive this season.
‘When you arrive like that, you’re always going to be talked about, and people are always going to target you,’ Henry told Yahoo Sport.
‘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.’

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