Arsenal legend Wright slams 'totally unprofessional' Pepe

The Gunners legend didn’t hold back in his criticism of the under-fire star following his dismissal against Leeds United.

Ian Wright claims Nicolas Pepe has let the entire Arsenal squad down for his ‘totally unprofessional’ headbutt on Ezgjan Alioski, which resulted in a straight red card.

The Ivorian winger made only his second start of the Premier League season on Sunday evening. He showed a few spurts of life in an otherwise lackluster Gunners attack at Elland Road, but left the team down to 10-men with a needless headbutt.

The challenge on Alioski came early in the second half, leaving Arsenal at a serious disadvantage. And while they held on for a 0-0 draw, their first stalemate of the campaign, it did nothing to excuse Pepe’s actions.

Nicolas Pepe has become the 5th Arsenal player (Luiz x2, Aubameyang, Nketiah) to be sent-off in the Premier League since Mikel Arteta’s first match as manager – two more than any other club. [Sky] #afc pic.twitter.com/lwsadRtxvU

— afcstuff (@afcstuff) November 22, 2020

Mikel Arteta branded them as ‘unacceptable’ in his post-match conference, and now Wright has weighed his opinion in on the matter.

“I’m not saying that it’s a proper full-on headbutt but you can’t do that to people in this day and age,” said the former Arsenal striker as quoted on the Mirror.

“You can’t get into people’s face like that. Alioski has gone down like he’s really got a proper headbutt but at the same time that’s just totally unprofessional and just poor from him.

“From somebody that has been complaining about not getting enough game time, somebody that has now got his chance and he’s let everybody down.

“He has let everybody down and I’m very disappointed in him simply because I don’t know who his team is around him but he’s come to the club, we’ve spent a lot of money on him.

“He’s someone that we have a lot of faith in and he seems to me that he’s not getting better, he’s actually getting more in himself and more frustrated, where you want to see him improving. He needs better advice around him.”