When Mikel Arteta first took over at Arsenal, the squad was a mess. That’s putting it politely too. In the defensive ranks he was faced with picking the likes of Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and he who must not be named, Shkodran Mustafi.
In midfield, it was hardly full of the muscle it is now with Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil making up his central trio.
In attack, he did have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but we all know how that ended. He also had a club-record signing of the time in Nicolas Pepe vying for a place on the right-hand side of the attack alongside Bukayo Saka.
While Saka burst out of the academy and made an immediate impact, Pepe was left in his dust, eventually forced to move away after a disastrous stint in north London.
Where things went wrong for Nicolas Pepe at Arsenal
In 2023, Arsenal broke their transfer record to sign Declan Rice for £105m from West Ham United. Since joining the Gunners, he has been a revelation. Set piece wizard, box-to-box destroyer, whatever you want to call him, he is now one of the best midfielders in world football, if not the best.
His story is the complete opposite of Pepe’s time at the Emirates Stadium. The club’s second biggest signing to the tune of £72m was a waste of money if there ever was one.
That said, are we perhaps a bit harsh on the Ivorian? While he was not worth the huge amount of cash Arsenal paid to bring him to England from Lille, his numbers were not shockingly bad.
It must be said that Pepe did struggle to hit the ground running. It took him six league games to score his first goal for the club and had only scored once in the top-flight across his first 13 outings. What on earth was going on here?
The Ivory Coast international looked way out of his depth and truth be told, it didn’t get much better for him in the red and white. He did, however, end his debut campaign with eight goals and ten assists.
The following campaign he netted 16 in all competitions, six of which came in 13 Europa League games as Unai Emery’s men made the final.
Yet, under Arteta, it never worked out at all. He eventually left the club on a free transfer in what has to go down as one of the worst deals from a financial perspective that Arsenal have ever made.
Fortunately, they’ve been better in the market since then, even if some deals haven’t looked like they would work out initially.
Arsenal star nearly became the new Pepe
Last summer, Arsenal spent a shedload on improving the squad with the likes of Martin Zubimendi, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze all arriving in big-money deals.
All four of them have contributed in their own way, even if Gyokeres’ did have a sluggish start to life in London. Now, however, no Premier League player has scored more goals (6) than him across all competitions throughout 2026.
He has seemingly been buoyed by the return of Kai Havertz, who like Pepe, had an extremely troubled start to life at the Emirates Stadium.
Signed for £65m from Chelsea, many protested against the move. He was initially signed as the Xhaka replacement for the role as Arsenal’s left 8 and given he had never really set the world alight at Chelsea, failing to nail down a position, alarm bells were raised.
On paper, this was a waste of money, perhaps akin to that Pepe deal. Life on the red side of the capital didn’t begin very well for him either.
It took the German seven games to finally score his first league goal and it took 13 matches for him to score his second. The numbers at the start were eerily similar to Pepe.
However, something then clicked. Havertz had played the vast majority of the 2023/24 campaign as a midfielder, but at the beginning of February, Arteta trialled him as a centre-forward against Liverpool. It worked.
The Germany international ended up playing 11 of the last 13 Premier League matches as a striker and he did remarkably well, scoring eight goals. Since then, he’s not looked back.
Havertz has missed a huge portion of the last year with injury but he’s now back to full fitness and has arguably swiftly become Arsenal’s most important player. Dare we say, with Saka out, he is their best player? Quite possibly.
The 26-year-old has been a huge miss and his performances since returning to the team in recent weeks showcase why. Many wondered what would happen to Gyokeres when Havertz came back but paired together, they have struck up a phenomenal relationship already.
It was the German who provided the assist for Gyokeres’ goal against Kairat Almaty and he very nearly provided him with another assist in the first half of that tie. Havertz played the ball across the box, the Swede got a touch, but it was eventually bundled home by Gabriel Martinelli at the back stick.
His performance levels after coming back into the team have been nothing short of exceptional, notably bagging that famous winner against Chelsea just under a week ago and delivering another superb performance against Sunderland at the weekend, picking up an assist for Gyokeres’ first goal.
Havertz is the glue that binds the whole attack together. Whether he’s playing slightly deeper in the Martin Odegaard role or as the focal point of the forward line, he’s made an almighty difference to this team. He’s not just made Gyokeres better, but you get the sense that everyone in the team loves playing with him. Just imagine what this frontline could look like once Saka is back too.
The former Chelsea man is, without a doubt, Arteta’s most important player right now. Keep him fit and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Arsenal win more than just one trophy come May.