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Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher unite in worrying criticism of Arsenal star Nicolas Pepe
Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe once again struggled against Manchester United on Monday.
Roy Keane criticised Arsenal star Nicolas Pepe following the 1-1 draw with Manchester United - and Jamie Carragher worryingly suggested the Ivorian may never live up to his hype.
Pepe became Arsenal’s record signing in the summer, arriving from Lille for £72million.
However, he has scored just one goal so far, from the penalty spot, and has underwhelmed with his general play for the Gunners.
Keane, who was working alongside Carragher on Sky Sports, was less than impressed with Pepe’s work rate at Old Trafford.
He didn’t seem up for the fight tonight
“Disappointed really with him since he’s come to the club,” Keane said.
“Not great body language… okay, sometimes we make excuses for players a lot, it takes time to settle into a club.
“You see this young kid tonight [Bukayo Saka], Pepe compared to him for the money they paid, he needs to do a lot more.
“But his work rate, his lack of quality, end product, and again his body language.
“He didn’t seem up for the fight tonight.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool legend Carragher claimed all the best players he played with during his career did not take long to settle in the Premier League if they came from abroad.
“Yeah he hasn’t started great,” Carragher said of Pepe.
“I think the first time we really looked at him was the Liverpool game and we thought there were maybe signs there, Arsenal on the counter attack.
“It is a lot of money and Roy’s right that we speak about [having] time to settle in and all these things.
“But all the great players I played with, certainly foreign players coming in at Liverpool, I could probably name one or two who actually took six months to settle in.
“All the best players sort of started [well] right away.
“But listen, it’s six, seven games into a season, let’s be looking at that more at Christmas.
“But you want a little bit more quality definitely than what we saw tonight.”