New season, same old Arsenal? On an evening when Viktor Gyökeres was meant to announce himself as the solution to all of Mikel Arteta’s problems, instead it was a figure from Arsenal’s past who stole the show.
At £72m – £8m more than they may end up paying for the Sweden striker – Nicolas Pépé was an expensive Arsenal signing, a few months before Arteta replaced Unai Emery in 2019. Most of the fans who packed out the Emirates Stadium for this pre-season friendly will not have many fond memories of the Ivory Coast international’s spell in north London, but he clearly had a point to prove here.
