Nicolas Pepe has proved Mikel Arteta right after scoring during Arsenal's 2-1 win against Wolves on Thursday night.
The Gunners struggled to break Bruno Lage's side down during their Premier League clash after Hwang Hee-chan had broken the deadlock in the opening exchanges of the match following a Gabriel Magalhaes mistake.
Club-record signing Pepe then netted the equaliser after Hale End academy graduate Eddie Nketiah played a pin-point cutback for the Ivory Coast international
Arteta had backed the former Lille star to help fire his side to a top-four finish last week, claiming that the talented winger had upped his game in recent times.
"Since he has come back from AFCON I think I have seen a different Nico as well," the Spaniard said.
"I don’t know what it is, probably he has realised the importance of the end of the season for him. He had a brilliant end of the season last year. He can replicate that.
"We need him at his best because everybody is going to contribute. We are a really short squad at the moment and we need it and hopefully he has understood that we want to play him.
"I don’t want to have a player like him sitting on the bench and not using him and the moment I have chances, I want to give him a chance.”
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When asked what specifically the Ivorian has done differently, Arteta added: "His attitude, his smile, the way he is communicating with everybody, his energy.
"The way he has trained. His efficiency in training, his application. His energy has changed. I don’t know what it is. I think he felt important again.
"Probably he felt like a proper football player that can win tournaments and felt: ‘Ok, this is me now’. And he needed that and I’m really pleased with that."
