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Darren Bent says attacker who left the Emirates for free was really ‘harshly treated’ at Arsenal
Arsenal have been on an upward trajectory over the past couple of seasons and have seemingly transformed their squad under Mikel Arteta.
Most of the player🍌s currently at the club have either been signed by the Spaniard or made their names under him, which is proof tha🏅t this is very much his squad.
Arteta has overhauled his squad since replacing Unai Emery at the helm in 2019, with several players who we⭕re signed by his predecessors 🍸being offloaded for sizable losses.
One such player is Nicolas Pepe, who left the club for free last sඣummer despite arriving as the club’s record signing in 2019.
And Darren Bent believes the Ivory Coast international wasn’t as ba🌃d as he was m📖ade out to be.
Darren Bent defends Nicolas Pepe’s Arsenal career
The Gunners splashed £72m to sign Pepe from Lille after his exploits🧸 with the Ligue 1 club and flattered to deceive at the Emirates 🎃Stadium as he struggled with injuries and inconsistency.
He w🐎as sent out on loan to Nice for the 2022-23 season to recapture his best, but that wasn’t to be the case as he jo🧸ined Trabzonspor on a free transfer last summer.
Bent says Pepe’s numbers at Arsenal are not nearly as bad as Antony’s and Jadon Sancho’s ಞat Manchester United as he launched a staunch defﷺence of the former Arsenal man.
“If🌄 you look at Pepe’s stats c🥃ompared to Antony and Sancho’s combined. He was still okay, he wasn’t rubbish,” Bent said on talkSPORT.
“He was okay. Listen,⛄ his stats are better than Sancho and Antony. I am talking about two players – that’s combined. He was okay. I think he was harshly treated because of the price tag.”
Analysing Pepe’s Arsenal career
Pepe made just 112 appearances 𝔉for Arsenal in 𝄹all competitions and notched up 27 goals and 21 assists at the club.
For a player who arrived as the club’s record signing, those numbers sim🌸ply aren’t good enough.
Arteta said it just didn’t work out for Pepe at the club and refused to dwell on what could have been af🎶ter offloading him last summer.
The Ivorian made a rather startlin𓂃g admission earlier this year which showed just how difficult things got for him at Arsenal.
Pepe admitted that he fell out of♈ love with football while ꦜhe was a♒t the club, although he admitted that the Arsenal fans always backed him.
The 29-year-old is now 𒁃at Villarreal after a failed stint with Trabzonspor and will look to ge🗹t his faltering career back on track in Spain.