Unai Emery sends message to Arsenal summer signing Nicolas Pepe over goal drought

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Arsenal manager Unai Emery has sent a message to summer signing Nicolas Pepe over his continued struggles to find the back of the net for the club.

The Ivory Coast international joined the Gunners from Lille before the start of the season in a keenly-anticipated move, but has not yet got going at the Emirates Stadium.

MORE: Time to axe Emery favourite and trust summer signing – How Arsenal need to line up from now on after Sheffield United setback

Pepe was a prolific scorer in Ligue 1 last season, but so far has just one goal to his name for Arsenal, and that was a penalty against Aston Villa.

Arsenal had a bad night once again on Monday as they suffered a shock 1-0 loss away to Sheffield United, with Pepe notably missing an absolute sitter.

The 24-year-old clearly needs to be doing better, even if some elements of his all-round game have been pretty good.

Emery has made it clear he expects more, however, as he issued a challenge to Pepe to start adding goals to his game.

Nicolas Pepe is struggling to settle at Arsenal

“The chance for us, for Pepe, was the key,” Emery said, as quoted by the Metro.

“Because if they score the first goal, defensively they are a very strong team.

“Pepe is improving but the next step for him is to score.

“Usually he is going to score chances like that – but tonight he didn’t take his chance.”

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