"He’s better than Nicolas Pepe" - Paul Merson urges Arsenal to sign Premier League forward
Paul Merson has said that Crystal Palace attacker Wilfried Zaha is a better player than Arsenal's Nicolas Pepe.
Merson has urged Arsenal to sign Wilfried Zaha this summer. The Palace player has been the subject of interest from the Gunners for a while. In his column for the Daily Star, former Gunners player Merson said:
“Arsenal should go back in for Wilfried Zaha and try to sign him from Crystal Palace this summer. They wanted him before and missed out. But Zaha wanted to join them, and he won’t stay at Palace forever. I think he would have made a difference to Arsenal."
Merson also said that Zaha could be an improvement on Nicolas Pepe, whose future at the club is in doubt.
Nicolas Pepe will consider his options in the summer after having a "tough season". 👀
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Merson added:
"He’s (Zaha) better than Nicolas Pepe. He draws players towards him and makes things happen. You’d get him a bit cheaper, and he’s a better player now than he was when they tried before. I think Pepe goes this summer if they can find a buyer, and sooner or later, they will try Gabriel Martinelli up front.”
About the player's possible fit at the Gunners, Merson wrote:
"They are going to need another winger if they get in the top four. They're going to play a lot of matches next season if they get back in Europe. That means a bigger squad, and I like Zaha, I think he would fit in well there. People say he doesn't score or assist enough. But I think he does a lot of work that coaches appreciate more than a fan would."
The Gunners, currently fourth in the Premier League standings, lead fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur by three points, albeit with a game in hand. Arteta's team is trying to return to the UEFA Champions League for the first time in five years.
Arsenal had previously tried to sign Wilfried Zaha
The Gunners were in fray for the Crystal Palace winger in 2019, among several other occasions. However, the move did not materialise, with the Gunners shifting their focus to Nicolas Pepe. They signed the Cote d'Ivoire international for £72 million from LOSC Lille.
Wilfried Zaha has today been linked with a move to Arsenal.
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Unai Emery was in charge of the Gunners then and he had spoken to the player, as revealed by Zaha:
“I had a conversation with the manager actually. (Unai) Emery was just like, ‘We don’t really need to go through much.' He said he’d seen me play; he knows I can change games at any time and stuff like that. He was like, ‘Yeah we’d love to have you,’ and I was just like, ‘Yeah I’d love to come’."
Zaha added:
“The conversation was rather straightforward because I played against him when he was manager of Arsenal. He saw what I could do, saw my work rate and what I could add to the team. Obviously, it was up to the club who they chose, and they chose Pepe over me.”
Zaha has registered ten goals and two assists in 27 games for Palace this season, while Pepe has scored just once n 26 games for the Gunners.