Arsenal manager Emery hasn’t revealed whether Pepe will be starting his first Gunners match this weekend just yet.
The club-record signing came off the bench against Newcastle last weekend, and was given just 19 minutes to impress his new fans.
The north London club signed Pepe from Lille in a £72million deal, and was left out of the starting line up at St James’ Park as he’d only recently joined the club and had played at the Africa Cup of Nations for Ivory Coast.
Emery will decide whether he’ll give Pepe the green light to start his first Premier League on Friday, ahead of the Burnley clash on Saturday (12.30pm).
“I am going to decide tomorrow,” Emery said when asked about whether Pepe will start against the Clarets.
“It depends how they will be tomorrow in the training. Pepe is training with us, improving with us, knowing us.
“He’s understanding our style little by little and physically getting better.
“He is more close to helping us at the beginning [of the match].”
The Arsenal manager added that the new signings are working well together in training.
But, just because the club splashed the cash this summer, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be sent straight into the first team.
“Each player is different,” added Emery. “After Newcastle and this week the players are working well.
“We can decide to choose different options in each position. Really I think we need to be competitive.
“We need different options to decide who is better each match.
“The new players, the players who were with us last year, the young players, we can achieve our way each match with confidence.”
As well as Pepe, Arsenal signed David Luiz from cross-city rivals Chelsea for £8m.
They also recruited Dani Ceballos on a season-long loan, left-back Kieran Tierney from Celtic, and William Saliba from Saint-Etienne. But, the latter was sent back to Ligue 1 on loan for the season.
