Mikel Arteta is hopeful Arsenal fans won’t have to wait until next season to see the best of Nicolas Pepe.
The winger arrived from Lille in the summer after the Gunners paid a club-record fee of £72million.
Pepe has struggled to impress since moving to England, however, and has found the net just five times this season.
It was expected the Ivorian would take time to settle and some have even suggested he may not be at his best until next term.
But Arteta said: “I hope we can see it from now to the end of the season.
“But if you go through the list of top players that have come to this country, how disappointing they were for the first ten to 12 months, then how incredible they were for the next five years, I think we could have a massive list here.
“It’s not easy to adapt to this league but he’s putting in the effort and he’s willing to do it - and it will come out.”
Many have blamed some of Pepe’s struggles on his hefty price tag.
Arteta has admitted that could be a factor, but also insisted the structure around the winger needs to be clicking for him to fire.
“The price that we paid for him puts him in a difficult position straight away because he’s going to be compared to players of that calibre,” added Arteta.
“First of all he needs the right structure behind him to be able to provide the moments of quality and winning games, whether it’s assists, goals, dribbles or whatever it is.
“Afterwards he needs to have a much clearer picture of the things that are happening on the pitch, why they are happening and how he can solve them. I think he’s in the process of doing that.
In Pictures | Arsenal training session in Dubai | 07/02/2020
“There is the consistency of the games as well. He hasn’t played 12 or 15 games in a row, which is a massive thing for a player in those positions, which are more difficult on the pitch to make an impact in games.
“He was in France and was one of the biggest stars in the league. He made an incredible year.
“He comes here and a lot of people didn’t even know him and you paid that price tag.
“So for him to put his brain into this picture and solve all this is not easy, and he’s a really young player.”
