Arsenal: Pepe demonstrates incredible skill during training
Arsenal forwards Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel Martinelli have a fan in the shape of former Gunners striker Robin van Persie. Both Pepe and Martinelli joined Arsenal last summer for contrasting fees. Pepe arrived for a club-record £72million whereas Martinelli came from Brazilian side Ituano for £6m.
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“I do believe that he needs time. You can clearly see his hand, you can clearly see a different rhythm of the Arsenal side playing.
“On and off the ball they’re working harder, they seem to work harder, so you can already see his hand but he just needs more time to really get them going I think.”
Arsenal have a huge battle on their hands to finish in the Premier League top four this season.
But Arteta says he is still hopeful due to other teams’ struggles.
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“Everyone is having a lot of problems to put together back-to-back wins, he league has been very competitive this season and that is why the gaps aren't that big,” the Spaniard said.
“There are still four months to play and a lot of things can happen, a lot of games between the top teams as well so I think that will change.”
Arsenal are in the Europa League but Arteta does not know if that is the best route to qualify for the Champions League or not.
He added: “We don't know at the moment, for me the only way to do it is to work every single day to improve those players and to make them feel comfortable on the pitch and with the ideas that we are putting together.
“Get every performance as good as we can, and that will take us as closer to every game.
“To look further than that is difficult and unrealistic.”