Nicolas Pepe has made a disappointing start to life at Arsenal.

The £72 million man has scored just once in eight matches for the Gunners since his move from Lille in the summer.

His worst performance came on Monday night in the 1-1 draw against Manchester United.

Pepe lost possession 17 times, with former United midfielder Roy Keane criticising him for not working hard and displaying poor body language.

The 24-year-old himself admitted he hasn’t been good enough before the game against Man United, but he vowed to turn things around.

“I’m not good enough in my stats or my usual form, it’s not the same as in Lille or during the Liverpool match early in the season,” Pepe told RMC.

“The confidence must come back. I am not very worried. People may be worried about statistics, but I’m not.”

Thread argues Pepe's case

Fans have jokingly began comparing Pepe to former Arsenal forward Gervinho but a thread on Twitter suggests they should lay off on the criticism.

Posted by @Cerebrone, the thread claims that Gunners boss Unai Emery isn’t setting up his team to get the best out of Arsenal’s record signing.

“Unai isn’t setting up his team to weaponise Pepe,” @Cerebrone claims.

“In the last 2/3 games, Pepe has been poor & his body language has been bad, admittedly, but the way Unai sets up doesn’t help at all. 3 DMs? Really?”

At Lille, Pepe was aided by the positional awareness of Jonathan Ikone, Jonathan Bamba and Zeki Celik.

At Arsenal, Mesut Ozil would be the one to link up with him but the German playmaker isn’t in the scene under Emery right now.

Instead, he had to work with Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Granit Xhaka against the Red Devils.

Check out the thread…

Click HERE to see the thread on Twitter.

So perhaps we should point the finger at Emery.

The imminent returns of Alexandre Lacazette and Hector Bellerin from injury should also help Pepe rediscover his best form at the Emirates.