Alex Iwobi says he’s frustrated that Arsenal’s 22-game unbeaten streak came to an end against Southampton but he insists the Gunners should give themselves some credit for stringing together such a decent run of results.
Following defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea in their opening two games of the season, Unai Emery’s men went 121 days without a loss, winning 17 matches and drawing five across three competitions.
While our form has been positive, Iwobi knows that the club can’t afford to drop further points in the Premier League over the festive period if they’re to keep pace with the clubs above them.
“Frustration that it’s over,” was Iwobi’s reply when asked how he felt about the end of the run.”
“We had a lot of chances to win this game, I believe. But we have to give ourselves a bit of credit that we were able to go on this unbeaten run and now we have to start over again.
“We have to react well, we have to keep on going. It’s a bit unfortunate that there were a couple of injuries but we have to keep on going and keep on fighting throughout the season.”
On the way the game played out, he added: “I guess we weren’t concentrating throughout the 90 minutes. We had spells where we weren’t defending well as a group.
“It’s something we have to dust ourselves down from and keep on going. We can’t let our heads drop from this defeat, we just have to push on to the next match.”
That next match is a Carabao Cup quarter-final with Sp*rs on Wednesday. Having lost Hector Bellerin and Stephan Lichtsteiner to injuries at Saint Mary’s, it’ll be interesting to see how Unai Emery chooses to fill the gaps.
Yes please, we need to bounce back and put Sp*rs out of the Carabao.
At least we’ll have our suspended defenders back, that will make a huge difference.
Remember if they don’t win a cup this season they won’t have won *anything* this decade (they have been declining by one trophy a decade since the sixties, eg only won one trophy last decade, two in the 90s etc). For me, that is enough reason to put a strong team out.
Thought Iwobi played well yesterday and looked out biggest threat, unlucky to get hauled off IMO
Iwobi rarely scores goals but you need goals to win. This is why I think Laca should start to take control of the game.
He failed to track back when the team was defending on many occasions during that match, and when he eventually seems to do so on rear occasions, he does it like he’ll rather have others do it. He’s still young to be lacking in this aspect of his game. Even Micky who’s much older tracks back when we defend too. He seems to have this idea that defenders should defend while attackers should do their things. That’s not modern football.
But maybe he was instructed from Emery to play that way?
On my old Nokia I had a game called Bounce
Correction: I have
Because my old Nokia is still fully functional..
I liked Bounce, I want us to Bounce back too
After a bright start to this season, Iwobi’s general play has regressed over the last few weeks and his end product is absolutely woeful.
It’s great that he’s an Arsenal academy graduate but he’s starting to remind me of Gervinho. I hope Iwobi starts to get back into the form we saw in the early months of the season.
Painful truth. Praise some a little and it’s either it gets into their heads or they completely relax, while others will use it as a burning fuel to aspire higher. Different levels of mentality.
Agree on the Iwobi comment. Is it just me or did Emery drop a hairy one putting on Mesut instead of Rambo yesterday? Easy to be wise after the event I know unless saving him for the Spuds..?
Don’t know why you’d say it was a mistake. Ozil didn’t lose the match. He was involved in scoring opportunities, and he worked to try to win. The whole team dropped that match, especially in protecting possession and defending.
We have no idea if Ramsey was really back to full after his ankle knock, and we have no idea if he would have had any better impact. He might be earmarked for the Spurs match, we don’t know, but none of that makes putting Ozil on a mistake.
Well Ozil technically did lose the ball with a silly stepover and fail to track back for Southampton’s winner, so in a sense he actually did lose the match… All I can say for sure is that when you have such a frenetic, end-to-end game, Ozil isn’t the first person I’d look to bring off the bench
at least he tries
I’m here because I know fans will just look at the headline, see “Iwobi” and just decide now is the time to start abusing the 21 year old.
Hoping for full changes on Wednesday. I know it’s the spuds, but our squad is creaking. Almost every game now seems to bring at least 1 new injury, if not 2. We need to manage this squad and rotate more, nd really rely on our youth to step up to the plate.
He’s 22. Three months younger than Torreira. He is too clumsy on the ball for his age. He plays with the maturity of an 18 year old and Torreira like a 28 year old.
Perfectly scripted analysis of him. I couldn’t have said it better.
Apples to oranges. Come on, let’s be reasonable.
Iwobi’s main job is to attack and take risks to help us score. That is so far different from Torreira’s. And let’s not forget Torreira is getting noticed widely as a standout.
The boss literally tells Iwobi to keep trying, to keep taking opposition players on. Because that’s his role. He’s obviously a confidence player a little shorn of it at the moment. When he was on good confidence, he was doing quite well. Now, he’s in a lower period. He needs support and confidence, not barracking and sniping.
He’s also the same age as Sane and Martial and there’s no comparison in quality.
I’d love him to be a great player but we can’t let the fact that he’s an academy product to cloud our judgement
I just happened to notice he’s not Messi either. Nor is he Ronaldo. He also doesn’t look much like a Neymar or Mbappe.
If the club is willing to buy that level of player, then by all means they should be played ahead of Iwobi when they’re on form. But they’re not here, so it’s got a big fat nothing to do with Iwobi.
That’s the whole point isn’t it? He isn’t good enough.
If people wish to use his age to mitigate that fact, I and others are totally within our rights to point out that it’s not true
I find it difficult to understand the comparison when it is apparent Iwobi is not a winger like either of them. The same way supporters have the grace to understand when someone like Wilshire/Ramsey are ‘doing a job’ on the wings, it should equally be applied to players like Iwobi/Ox.
Just because those players have the attributes (speed/dribbling ability) to play there, it doesn’t mean that is where they excel.
You’re right, it’s clear he isn’t a winger like either of them.
Redundant comparison, apart from the fact development isn’t linear like that.
Might as well right off Nelson and Smith-Rowe too, after all Torreira was playing fairly regularly at 19/20. Martial was doing loads at 18 for Monaco, so Nelson will never be world class. Mbappe is a monster at 18, so it’s obvious Eddie won’t make it either.
Not excusing him at all, just saying it’s a faulty logic.
When it comes to time played, Iwobi has been managed fairly compared to others who have been overstretched. That’s a disturbing excuse bearing in mind his age..
He hasn’t been great of late but I’ll always have more time for a young player still learning his trade than the many other older players who have been just as inconsistent despite their experience and wages!
With a team as frail as this one I’d be inclined to sack off the c.cup. we obviously lack any depth in defence so should just stick with the league and Europa as our goals.
Play a young team and if we win then great. Loosing to spurs is always ugly but we proved we’re better already. Carry on as we are and we’ll be in bits come the New year .
Who ever thought loaning out calum chambers was a good idea needs to stand on the naughty step.
Not really because if Chambers stayed, he would have been our 3rd choice right-back and/or 5th choice centre back. Nobody could have predicted injuries to every single defender except for Mustafi. At least at Fulham he’s getting 90 minutes every week.
When Chambers was loaned out he was our best central defender which makes it all the more frustrating
I’d play the Europa team Wednesday. A loss to spurs in the league cup would sting for a few days but given how threadbare the squad is I’d rather do that and get straight back to winning ways in the league.
Fuck off!! We should NEVER lie down and let those cunts walk over us!!
Our best hope of glory now is in the cups: we should play our strongest team on Wednesday.
And for fucks sake we need to make a couple of defensive signings as soon as the window opens.
Totally agree.
If it was any other competition I’d agree, but to be honest i don’t give a flying fuck about the League Cup. I’d rather we have a good crack at the top 4/ Europa/ FA Cup, and we’re lacking numbers already. Even when they hammered us 5-1 all those years ago it was horrible, but it was forgotten about pretty quickly.
No doubt spurs released that match on dvd.
And yes re the signings- desperately. We need to take a leaf out of Liverpool’s book and go big, we’ll presumably be in the market for a centre back come the summer anyway so i’m hoping Emery will convince them the 10-15% January surcharge is entirely worth it if it gives us a shot at hitting Champions League next season.
Take the top 4, take the cups, take them all
I could certainly see our defence being something like Jenkinson Sokratis Medley MaitlandNiles.
I don’t think Iwobi should be doing interviews about bouncing back when he’s been so ridiculously bad in a match. If he put some effort in it may have been a different story. He’s not a baby any more and there are no excuses for sleeping through matches like he does.
Sleeping through matches as if there’s nothing at stake. Perhaps he thought it was a training match or a friendly at most. Disgusted at his latest attitude and work rate during matches.
Players who didn’t start/didn’t play at all Sunday,Cech,Sokratis,Ramsey,Ozil,Lacazette,plus a few youngsters,Medley,Eddie,Smith-Rowe if fit,should give us a great chance.Lacazette should always start anyway.i
Seeing how ruthless Emery is with non performers. He is off for sure next season, or demoted to squad player status.
When player is good enough, it shows by 22. And he so obviously is not. Except for rare exceptions.
Rubbish.
Players normally come good at 23yrs..Ramsey, Walcott bumper goal seasons.
PLUS why blame Iwobi when Aubameyang missed so many more chances.
FACT is we do not have someone like Iwobi who can run at players, engage them and pull them out of position.
Ramsey, Mhkitaryan and Ozil are too similar. They are pass and play types that are uncomfortable attacking players and taking them on.
I can’t understand how anyone can blame Iwobi when Aubameyang was flagrantly wasteful with FAR better opportunities.
SIMPLY LUDICRUOUS.
Again the same voices who conspire to criticise the likes of Ozil for the third goal when really Koscielny, Monreal and Leno could have done better …will look for their favorite scapegoats.
No Mustafi so they cast their eyes on Iwobi.
Iwobi did well for me finding good balls out wide and one excellent delivery to Aubameyang who was wasteful all night but somehow escapes similar criticism.
You have to wonder if these critics really watch the match or are just waiting for certain players to make a mistake here and there and amplify it out of proportion.
Not really, because most people don’t make judgements in isolation.
Iwobi is an attacking player who’s scored 10 goals in 118 matches and people have quite rightly seen enough to take a more elevated view on his overall contribution to the team.
Aubameyang on the other hand has scored 20 goals in 30 appearances so you can’t compare what they bring to the team.
This is a very difficult concept to understand.
isn’t*
I don’t scapegoat anyone, I tell it as I see it, and I’m not easily influenced by other people’s opinions either. Iwobi has regressed so badly that the first half of that game was like playing with ten men. With the makeshift defence we had the midfield should have been busting a gut to protect them, but Iwobi has developed this habit of sleeping through games. He can’t attack and he doesn’t defend, and he’s 22 years old now, not a baby. I can find excuses for Kos and Nacho being thrown in at the deep end after injuries and… Read more »
Making excuses for Koscielny, he should have done better regardless of ring rust.
Alex is a second half player trust me!
recently his last touch on the ball has been very poor,he really needs to work on it before the season comes to an end,On Ozil I think we have been missing his creativity on every match he hasn’t played,he needs to know when & where to loose possession,Good luck on Wednesday all goners!