Arsenal legend Martin Keown has slammed the club's record £72million signing Nicolas Pepe and says "Lille will be laughing all the way to the bank".
The summer signing had a night to forget as the Gunners drew 1-1 with Manchester United on Monday evening, where he gave away the ball 17 times.
His recent misery was compounded on Thursday when boss Unai Emery dropped him to the bench for the 4-0 Europa League win over Standard Liege, eventually bringing him on, with the win already wrapped up, for a 24-minute cameo appearance.
And, having managed just one goal and two assists in nine games this season, Keown has blasted Emery's decision to sign Pepe and believes 18-year-old winger Bukayo Saka deserves his chance to shine.
Keown told BT Sport: "If you think back to Arsene Wenger, he would have never of blocked the path of a young player but they are in danger of doing that with Bukayo Saka.
"Pepe, is he going to get into the team? It's a massive amount of money they have paid for him and Lille will be laughing all the way to the bank with that one.
"It's still early days and maybe the player will turn it around but I haven't really seen what I expected to see from him."
Fellow BT Sport pundit Michael Owen echoed Keown's verdict, believing Pepe's underwhelming performances have tarnished Arsenal's promising start to the season.
"We're talking a lot of positives about Arsenal at the moment but I think there is one little negative eating away and that is Pepe," Owen added.
"I was excited by him, I saw him in the French league and he looked a very good player, he started the first game and looked like he had a bag of tricks but he's just gone off the boil.
"That's a huge investment for anybody but it is a huge investment for Arsenal."
