WhoScored recently compiled some Arsenal stats for the season so far, revealing Nicolas Pepe is the squad’s highest-rated player.

Ahead of the Premier League’s return, WhoScored posted a summary of Arsenal and their season so far, including the detail that Pepe is their top-rated player. The winger has an average rating of 7.19 in the Premier League.

The only player with a higher average so far is Pablo Mari (7.37), and he doesn’t qualify having only played in one game. WhoScored only included players with total appearances more than the average number of appearances in the Premier League.

Across the entire league, this rating puts Pepe in 27th, which is certainly solid for a debut season. It also says something about how badly most of the Arsenal squad have underperformed this campaign so far.

Pepe also has four WhoScored Man-of-the-Match awards in the Premier League and three in the Europa League, an overall total of four more than the next best in the squad (Saka with three in total).

There was a lot of pressure on Pepe to perform this season, after his €80m transfer. That’s led to a lot of hyperbole from fans whenever he underperforms.

With six goals and eight assists so far, the reality is that he’s settling in slowly but surely. It’s just harder to get that across than screaming that he’s a flop on social media and posting a clip of a bad pass with ten crying-face emojis.