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Arsenal hopeful for Pepe replacement – Arteta

Mikel Arteta believes the competitiveness of this summer’s transfer window is unlike anything he has experienced before, but remains hopeful Arsenal can bring in a winger to replace Nicolas Pepe before Thursday’s deadline.

Premier League spending surpassed £1.5 billion on Thursday, exceeding the record for a single window of £1.43bn from 2017, with several clubs including Chelsea and Manchester United expected to make further additions to their squads in the coming days.

Arsenal have already spent around £120 million in the window and after Pepe‘s season-long loan move to Nice was confirmed on Thursday, they are seeking to make at least one more addition with Wolverhampton‘s Pedro Neto their top target, although the two clubs remain some way apart in their valuations.

“If you look at the players who are coming, the amount of money spent, the level that already the squads have and what they are adding, it’s something that I haven’t experienced in this league,” Arteta said on Friday.

“You saw [on Thursday] a few of the transfers that happened and what is going to happen in the last week or so I think is going to be very powerful.

“The record in terms of performances that the leagues have produced last year it’s the highest ever. When you look at the points you need to achieve certain things it’s never happened before. The level has raised so much for every team in this league and you can already see that in these first few games with surprises and results.”

Pepe started just five matches last season and has generally disappointed since becoming the club’s record signing in a £72m move from Lille in 2019.

“He needed minutes, he has been craving minutes and talking to me a lot about that, I couldn’t guarantee that right now, what he was looking for,” Arteta said.

“At some stage, if you extend that period for too long then frustration comes in and the level of performance won’t be what we want and we decided that [a loan] was the best thing to do for all parties.”

Asked whether that meant a replacement was likely, Arteta added: “If we can implement the plan that we have, we will try to do [it].

“In that plan, that [Pepe leaving] was something that could happen. Now it is a reality and we have been preparing the last two months in order to achieve what we want. Whether that is possible or not, we will see.

“At the start of the window we signed players before getting other players out, now we have done something different. We have let a player go and maybe [we’ll] be able to recruit somebody, but it’s not a guarantee because the players are still not here.

“What I guarantee is the day the window closes, for me this is the best team in the world and I will try to get the best out of them, that’s it.”

ESPN Premier League News

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