Unai Emery Has Always Believed In Me – Pepe

Arsenal winger, Nicolas Pepe has said he knows he has struggled to cope with the huge expectations that came with being Arsenal’s club-record signing.

However, Pepe, who netted 2 amazing free-kicks in the last 10 minutes on Thursday night to give his club a 3-2 victory in the Europa League, has said he has more to give.

He also appreciated his coach, Unai Emery for always believing in him.

His words, “Of course [I knew it would be harder],”

“It is a league totally different to Ligue 1, with a different intensity.

“For me, I had to adapt quickly because expectations were high. Unfortunately, that is not what I did at the beginning but I have always had the manager’s trust and the players have supported me.

“I am not at my best physically because I didn’t have a proper pre-season like the others as I was at the Africa Cup of Nations. I am trying to work hard to be stronger physically to perform well and adapt to the Premier League.”

“It’s been hard [to keep my confidence high], but the manager trusts me. Even if I haven’t been decisive for a while, I always had the manager’s trust. It is always important to have the manager’s faith.

“The key is to have good people around you. I have my family here with me so I can be good mentally, especially when things are not going well. I rely a lot on them. For me, it was always going to be difficult to come here in the unknown, with a different language. So to have my family with me is important.

“It’s not easy starting out here but I’m beginning to find my feet with the help of my team-mates.”

Emery said, “Scoring two goals is good for the confidence,” said the winger. “But the most important thing is that there was a win at the end. It showed our mental strength and our character.

“We had already done it against Aston Villa where we were behind and came back. Now, we can focus on the Crystal Palace game [on Sunday] which will arrive very quickly.”