Nicolas Pepe was delighted to leave Arsenal and join Nice earlier this month, but his debut for the French side did not go to plan on Sunday.
Nice were thrashed 3-0 by Marseille at home, with former Arsenal man Alexis Sanchez netting twice and Nuno Tavares, who is on loan from the Gunners, grabbing the other goal. Marseille, who also fielded former Arsenal players Sead Kolasinac and Matteo Guendouzi, are now top of the Ligue 1 table, while Nice are languishing in 18th place without a win from their opening four matches.
Pepe remains Arsenal’s record signing, having cost £72million from Lille in 2019, but his career has not taken off as expected since then. The Ivory Coast international has joined Nice on a season-long loan in the hope he can re-find his best form in the league where he made his name.
He started on the right wing for Nice against Marseille, but did not make any sort of impact on the game. Interestingly, Nice boss Lucien Favre did not hold back in his assessment of his new signing when asked about his performance post-match.
“He hasn’t played for a long time in England. He has done the pre-season with Arsenal but he hasn’t played any matches," he told Foot Mercato. "He is lacking a bit of rhythm, intensity in his placements, in his pressing as well and in his ball recovery, because everyone has to do that. There aren’t any exceptions. If one or two players don’t do the work, the whole team is in trouble. Everyone has to do it at the same time, everyone has to defend to recover the ball.”
Favre then discussed his entire team's struggles, but pointed to their midweek exertions against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. The Ligue 1 side were forced into extra-time in order to book book their place in the Europa League. Pepe was absent from that match, having only joined the club on that day, but clearly his performance against Marseille left a lot to be desired.
“We already talked about that. The fatigue is there, we did extra time, there are players who ran 17km, I understand that. Can't put it down to fatigue. We have to be ready, be professional. Ball recovery is essential in all professional sports.”
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"It's a very, very big disappointment,” Favre added on the team’s performance. “We were not good in the first half, it must be said. Too little courage to go higher. We make mistakes on goals. It was a little better in second, but it's because Marseille relaxed, there was not much.
“We defended badly in the first half. When you're not good at recovery, you can't be good. We talked about that before. We are tired. We changed four five-players, these are excuses. The transfer window too. Some will leave, others come, it can be disturbing. But these are excuses.”
Pepe has been joined at Nice this summer by former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who signed after his Juventus contract was terminated early, and Kasper Schmeichel, who left Leicester to move to the south of France.
It has not been a happy start at the club for the former Premier League trio. Although Ramsey scored on his debut, his strike is one of just two goals Nice have managed, with Favre’s team the lowest scorers in Ligue 1.
