Ivorian Pépé Stars as Arsenal Win

English Premier League side Arsenal survived a late scare last night when they saw off the challenge of Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães in their Europa League clash at the Emirates in North London.

The game was rescued thanks to substitute and new signing Nicolas Pépé, a young Ivorian who joined the club from French Ligue 1 side Lille in August for a club record fee of €79 million.

Arsenal were heavy favourites going into the match, but Vitória were not prepared to go down without a fight, with the game level thanks to goals from English youngster Marcus Edwards and Brazilian Bruno Duarte da Silva.

Pépé came off the bench at the 75-minute mark when Arsenal was trailing 2-1. 

However, he saved the game with two sublime free kicks in the last ten minutes of the match, the second of which and subsequent winner came in injury time.

Darren Fletcher said in commentary that “this is the night Nicolas Pépé really arrived at Arsenal”, referring to his somewhat lacklustre start to his career in North London.

Prior to his two goals last night, Pépé had scored just one in his first eleven appearances for the club, drawing criticism from many saying he was not living up to his price tag.

Arsenal’s win last night sees them retain their place at the top of Group F, with a three-point lead over German side Eintracht Frankfurt.