N. Pépé

Pépé's 2026/27 season, read from the numbers

In 2026/27, N. Pépé was used in rotation for Villarreal in the La Liga: 6 appearances and 423 minutes, averaging 71 minutes per outing. His standout number is match rating — 34th of 978 midfielders and inside the top 3%.

Per 90 minutes that is 1.7 key passes per 90, 0.0 assists per 90 and 0.9 ball recoveries per 90 — the rate profile behind Pépé's totals. The profile is lopsided rather than complete: measured against midfielders, Pépé sits in the top 2% for assists but only the top 31% for tackling volume.

Set against Pépé's own record, 2026/27 reads differently: he has managed 22 in a season before, so 5 is well short of his own mark; he is playing far less than he once did — 823 minutes against 3326 at his peak; his average match rating has slipped from 7.25 to 6.57 since 2025/26. Our records cover 11 seasons of Pépé's career, 2016/17 to 2026/27, across 6 clubs — Angers, Lille, Arsenal, Nice and others. In that time he has played 353 matches across 13 competitions, 22,790 minutes in all.

His best return on our records was 11 assists in 2018/19, from 38 appearances. He is 7 appearances into the current one. Pépé has 36 appearances in UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League and UEFA Champions League on our records, and the level holds either way, 0.37 per 90 domestically against 0.38 in Europe.

Pépé has reached 8 assists in a season 3 times, between 2018/19 and 2025/26 — a level held rather than found once. Away from his club, Pépé has 21 appearances for Ivory Coast on our records, scoring 5 — across Africa Cup of Nations, World Cup - Qualification Africa and World Cup.

On our positional score Pépé rates 40 out of 100, 22nd of 326 qualified players — inside the top 7%. Relative to what each component is worth, his strongest is goalscoring rate.

How these scores are built, and the minutes and rating floors a player must clear to appear on our boards, are set out in our methodology.