Alex Iwobi admits Arsenal’s 3-1 loss to Wolves – our seventh on the road this season – is hard to swallow but he still believes a top-four finish is achievable.
Wednesday’s abject defeat means our Champions League hopes are now out of our own hands going into the final three games, although this week’s poor results for Chelsea and Manchester United, who play each other on Saturday, means the race isn’t over just yet.
The Gunners started well at Molineux but quickly faded when Ruben Neves’ free-kick beat Leno on 28 minutes.
Matt Doherty and Diogo Jota piled on the misery with further goals before the break as we pressed the self-destruct button and even though Sokratis grabbed a late consolation Iwobi was quick to admit the performance was not good enough.
“Obviously it’s a tough one to take,” he told Arsenal.com. “It’s not a good result when we want to get in the top four, but we can’t dwell on it, we have to move on to the next game.
“It’s [disappointing] but last time we had back-to-back [league] defeats, we went on an amazing run. We’ll look at that as a confidence boost, go back to training and just focus on the next game.”
On the club’s bad results on the road – the table for away games now has us in 9th place – Iwobi added, “I don’t know what it is, I can’t pinpoint it, otherwise we would have just sorted it out.
“I think it’s a mental thing – we just have to keep on fighting, keep on being together as a team and just focus again on the next game.
“It’s still up for grabs. We believe we have a chance, so we’ll keep going.”
It breaks my heart, but indeed we do have to move on, Alex.
You have to move
Talking of moving on. Steve Bould was one of our better defenders in his time at the club. What input does he have that have resulted in some of the shambles at the back this year?
If,as I suspect it is none as it was under AW, might as well move him on and get someone with some guts in like Tony Adams (which I know won’t happen)
Tony Adams has been absolutely crap as a coach, he’s also done his best to run arsenal down at every opportunity because they won’t give him a job.
I agree Bould isn’t doing much but Adams would not be an improvement
Unpopular opinion but I would like to see Martin Keown join the coaching staff, I’m not saying Bouldy doesn’t have any passion but can you honestly see Keown sitting on the bench when the back 4/3 make a royal cock up?!? Although like most pundits he talks a good game but can/could he back it up in a coaching capacity maybe breed him in via the academy perhaps??
I don’t think we need someone off the bench, Unai is very engaged. BUT we defo need a hairdryer, someone to play the bad cop a bit. Distinct lack of urgency second half, ponderously trying to pick passes. Partially though there’s only so much you can do with the limited capability of the team. There is a lack of players who can win with one on ones Plus you contrast where we are compared to City who can of course lump in a Mane (we throw on Nketiah) We don’t have the players that can come on to add a… Read more »
So this is all what it comes down to now? Shouting and “paassshhhh’n”?
Martin Keown has said some horrible things about Arsenal and our players, and he’s another one like dams who shouldn’t be let anywhere near the club, and definitely not near young players. Defending is more than barging about showing passhun.
I like Iwobi. Arsenal product. Loves the club. But here’s the truth. At 23 next week Iwobi wouldn’t start for Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, United. He also wouldn’t start for Leicester, Wolves, Palace. Would Mhiki for that matter? We used to measure quality in how certain players at the club were the best in the league at their position (or top 3 etc). But now we have some starting players that wouldn’t start for mid table clubs. That’s not to say they don’t try, or that I don’t think they want to win for the club. They’re just not… Read more »
Nobody in out starting eleven would start for either of the top two,
Dunno about that. I think Laca and Auba would stand a chance of getting into those teams…. thought the more I think the more I question that. There are a few at Liverpool who are not world beaters but function better than we do as a collective.
Lacazette > Firmino maybe. Torreira > Henderson/Wijnaldum.
Bellerin would be the most likely to break into those teams and we miss him terribly.
I could maybe, just maaaaaybe see Laca at Liverpool ahead of Firmino, he’d fit the style. But apart from that I can’t see anyone here in those sides at all.
Actually, Ramsey and Bellerin could be good options for both teams as well, they’d at least be in rotation. Shame we’re letting one of them leave for free!
Until the injury – Chamberlain was a starter at Pool. Yes there are definitely many more that can start. our back 4 poor on the day. Feel for the keeper who has been astounding. Midfield is off. front pack of Ozil ,aube and Laca could easily fit in.
Your aware that city have scored 20 league goals more than us and liverpool 10? i dont think they need either of our strikers, and ozil wouldnt get into any other team in the top six dont mind liverpool and city
Ozil barely starts for Arsenal, it’s laughable that you think he would start at City or Liverpool.
Ozil is the second most overrated player in the league behind Pogba.
As I recall, at the time of his injury Chamberlain was doing the business for Pool, scored two corkers against City in the prem and CL. You’d think Ramsey could get into that midfield, mind. There’s an argument for Laca and Bellerin as well but that’s it.
I don’t think so, especially city, Aguerro is the est striker in the league , Bellerin wouldn’t get in ahead of walker either i dont think, and again, while as a fan base we seem happier with players like Torreira, We lack players with the qualities Henderson brings
Torriera although energetic and aggressive but is slow and lightweight..
“Here is the truth” Yeah, well, thats just, like, your opinion, man.
Duuuude!
I wouldn’t write Iwobi off yet… 23 is still a few years away from his peak. Needs to seriously work on end product though
“We have to move on”
Of course! But still, fucking hell!
With all due respect – I hope Iwobi moves on at the end of the season. He’s not good enough!
I’m willing to give him one more season to come through.
Decent squad player but not a starter.
Squads need depth. I doubt you’d be that bothered by Iwobi if he was a rotation option and not so heavily relied upon. He’s arguably our best wide player and he’s not even really a natural wide player.
I’d rather give Chambers or Bielik a chance if a squad place was up for grabs. Iwobi an easily be replaced from the academy, the youngsters coming through in midfield and wide positions are better than him already.
Talk…
Personally I moved on at half time – I had better things to do than to carry on watching that drivel.
I understand the sentiment but no, we shouldn’t just move on. Instead we HAVE to try and sort out our shockingly weak mentality. I’ve said it again and again that as soon as the opposition go a goal ahead or the crowd create a bit of atmosphere, we totally collapse…
And don’t start talking bollocks about top 4 being up for grabs and there still being a chance of us securing it. It was actually in our own hands but we still managed to cock it up!
the lot of you need to be moved on.
People won’t like this, but I keep saying I’m keen to see Iwobi as a CM now more than ever with Ramsey out. He has the physicality, drive and power, but also passing and most of all dribbling, which helps as right now our midfield always tries to pass their way out of a press than dribble. Better yet, it puts him in a place where he’s strongest; further away from the final third, and means we’re not dependent on his final ball or goal-scoring, of which he has so little of it. It accentuates his strengths and diminishes his… Read more »
Yeah good suggestion. He needs to work on his defensive game but he has the technique to be very effective there.
I can’t take anyone seriously who thinks a club like Arsenal should just get rid of a player with Iwobi’s talent. Forget about that fact that Wilshere also produced little end product but was the darling of the club, we have to keep working on developing our young players no matter how frustrating it might be.
No Alex, we shouldn’t move on, we should have a look at last might and wonder why does this happen so often? like 6 and 7 times a season, stop skirting around the issue, Our defenders cannot defend, at all, individually or collectively, our midfielders roll the ball side to side and backwards and offer nothing in terms of attack or defence, Ozil and mhiki can just fuck off, two of the flakiest, most hit and miss players I’ve ever seen, is ozil not embarrassed by how easy he is to push of the ball? grow a pair you skinny… Read more »
Shut up Alex.. we are moving you on to Doncaster rovers
Does he mean move players on from the club?
What is just astonishing to me is how this club has the ability to just stand still. I know, I know, Wenger was here for 22 years and to make changes to such a massive organisation is not made in an heart beat. But still, at the end of the day it is just football. 11 players get on the pitch and play passes, kick a football towards goal and try not to concede. How on earth is it possible to not be able to take on and beat a man, run a little faster towards the oppositions goal and… Read more »
You know; usually just serial killers and kidnappers send notes in newspaper clippings and in different fonts to mask themselves. Just an FYI.
I’ve been compromised…
Arsenal is quite the lesson on humility. I am past patience now. Been for a while really. What I need is something else. Maybe shelving of all ambition. If it turns out all good in a few years, so be it. But I am not holding my breath. This is all too familiar.
My patience went a few years ago tbh. I love it when they play well still, but honestly when they play like that and I see overpaid players ambling around who give half a fuck and an owner who gives zero fucks I find myself wanted them all to experience the worst humiliation. Why should I care if they don’t? I find it easier and easier to switch off when we are playing like utter cunts and even easier to forget about the game. Takes me roughly 5 minutes nowadays to erase the match from my thoughts. There’s enough stress… Read more »
I agree with you 100% I use to struggle with a loss now it became normality and takes me few minutes after the game to erase this so called EFFORT….
Hold on did I just write EFFORT?
I also agree with Blogs the issues of this club run deeper than we think…
Yes it is familiar indeed! Strange parallels with Manure here. Team in the duldrums, kick out the manager, new manager comes in, win enough games so that appears the corner has been turned, revert to just as it was before and the season fades to grey! Sure we have a lot of middle rank players these days but so do Wolves and Everton and look what they have done recently! The issue, I believe, is the mentality of the team. For a start there is no leader on the pitch. Where is the Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira? As a… Read more »
Half the team has to move on. We need to focus and build around auba and laca’s strengths, which means fast flank hugging players to deliver low crosses to them, sad to mention, like liverpool whips low crosses in fast psced. This means no room for iwobi, micky, and even ozil.
He has to move on…
Iwobi has all the ability and is big enough to look after himself. I just don’t get why he is so ineffective and never shoots. Nobody bangs on about how young Sane is at 23. It simply has to be the club with so many players underachieving.
We’ll finish 5th and Chelsea will win the Europa League. We won’t sell the likes of Mustafi and Iwobi because they’re Europa League standard players, and we’re a Europa League standard club. I’m not even convinced that we’ll sign a new director of football, I think Raul and Emery will just pluck players from La Liga. We’re already weaker next season as Ramsey is leaving and we don’t have the funds to replace a player of that quality. And if a top club want to buy Bellerin, Lacazette, or Aubameyang? We’ll sell and replace with a player of lesser quality.… Read more »
He needs to move on as well in all honesty
How about we – the fans – quit the club for a season? It would do us some good to regain our sanity; spend time doing something better; catch up on sleep (overseas fans); go on a proper holiday, etc.
Heck, it may even send a message to the players. But knowing this lot, they probably wouldn’t give a rat’s ass.
No they wouldn’t as long as they get that fat cheque at the end of the week!
I already have quit watching this team.
My focus this season has been Boreham Wood watching a proper Arsenal team who have already qualified for Champions League next season, only lost the League Cup final on penalties, still lead the WSL table by 4 points with 2 games to go and with a goal difference of +52!
No, Alex, we don’t have to move on. We cannot just ignore and forget quickly whenever something bad happens. We have to dwell on that, have to analyze it over and over, to open our eyes and take all the blame and feel all the shame.
And then from the stinking manure of that humiliation to find the strength to go on and fight the next one.
Unai Emery inherited this mess and needs time, patience, a decent budget and good recruitment to fix this. I like Iwobi and would rather get shot of Ozil+Mkhitaryan this summer, and give Iwobi another 12 months before making a decision on his future, I think he’s improved this season, he finds himself in good positions, he just needs to find a ruthlessness in front of goal, the one worry is, that he nearly always gets pulled at 70 minutes , so I don’t know if there’s a stamina issue there. The last 2 results have come as no surprise to… Read more »
Good comment. The truth hurts and right now, but this is Arsenal’s truth. This is not directed to you, Rich, but is in the spirit of your comment, which is excellent and I agree. Lookit: Manyoo was a mess after Fergie left. They finished what, 7th, 8th that year and the year after? Liverpool had been a joke for a long time, since probably Istanbul and Rafa left. Klopp’s first couple years were shit. It took time and money (70M on a keeper; 50M on a defender; a hat full of attackers, etc.) but they’ve progressed. Chels finished 7 or… Read more »
And, that Emery has the side competing for a top 4 spot, and in the Europa semifinal is a freaking miracle. He deserves time and support from the club and supporters.
I had a longer comment to your comment, Rich, that somehow got deleted. Probably me being sloppy. At any rate, good comment. Agree completely.
It isn’t like Pool or Citeh have been amazing for ever. Pep the Magnficicent got a few years and a billion pounds – Citeh were total dross for years prior. Pool has been shit since Istanbul. Klopp got near half a billion pounds and a few seasons to get it together.
Emery has as big a task on his hands but a fraction of the funds/support. It could be a while.
Rich, Homer: I’m not sure it is helpful to have such low expectations of the squad or of Emery, but to each his own. But I don’t think the narrative that Emery inherited a “mess” from AW is a useful narrative, except to help deal with this year’s continued failings. We chased Wenger out with considerable fanfare — his time was done, and he was at his all-time low as Arsenal manger, but Emery has not really improved our outlook that much even with five new starters Leno, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi, and Auba [only played half last season]. Wenger was… Read more »
Emery did inherit an absolute mess though. He didn’t inherit it from Wenger alone, it’s the Kroenke’s mess as well. And it’s not just about results – it’s the decreasing quality of the squad relative to our rivals, the messy contractual and wage-bill situations, this soulless status quo we’ve accepted where a stadium makes more money than any in Europe, but our ambitions don’t go beyond financial stability. If we’re gonna talk about Emery’s crucial mistakes that cost us millions in revenue, let’s also talk about Wenger’s mistakes. It wasn’t all sexy football – the major mistake that led us… Read more »
As I said, I just don’t think it is helpful to give Emery a free pass because he inherited a (perceived) mess. The squad and the four new starters Emery began his tenure with are better than we’ve shown at times this year, and like Wenger before him, Emery needs to take responsibility for that. He needs to feel the heat, because fifth place and pathetic losses like the most recent are not acceptable — as we pronounced from the tallest mounts and to anyone who would listen last season. Arsenal has never been a big-spending club, and that won’t… Read more »
Well, individual players have improved, the team has become more competitive in big games, more sophisticated tactically, runs more than any other club in the league, and but for a number of individual errors that led to goals, would be sitting in 3rd place right now. So any reasonable fan would say yes we’ve improved. And it’s missing the point to say the club has “limited resources” and that’s “reality”. Absolute rubbish. We have the 3rd or 4th highest wage bill in the league. Emery doesn’t have much to work with because the last regime wasted resources, and almost encouraged… Read more »
But we still lose to Crystal Palace, at home? And then to Wolves away, by a considerable margin? And Everton before that? Is that improvement, when we can’t deliver the goods at the most important time of the season?
Do you really think we can compete financially with City and United, and the nouveau riche Liverpool?
Palace beat City at the Etihad, Wolves have beaten nearly every big club this season, and before Everton beat us Chelsea and Utd also lost there. Story of this season – more quality, more spread out in the league.
And Pochettino’s working with nearly 100m less in squad wages. Even the Atletico Madrid side that beat us last season spent nearly 150m less than we did on wages. So we’re not poor, we just need to spend what we have better.
Shut up u bottler
yeah let’s move on and send mikhi to Gala. I don’t think one blood amounts to a genocide.
Mhki and Sanchez. Who got the better deal ?? Probably Man C who managed to dodge the bullet.
What is just astonishing to me is how this club has the ability to just stand still. I know, I know, Wenger was here for 22 years and to make changes to such a massive organisation is not made in an heart beat. But still, at the end of the day it is just football. 11 players get on the pitch and play passes, kick a football towards goal and try not to concede. How on earth is it possible to not be able to take on and beat a man, run a little faster towards the oppositions goal and… Read more »
Alex you just need to sit in a room and watch videos of Raheem Sterling and see what he does in front of goal – Sterling was just like Alex 2 seasons ago, lots of talent but hugely frustrating with no end product in front of goal. He has now turned into a world class Premier league player. Give Alex one more season.
Sterling worked his socks off and was coached every day by Mikel Arteta, Iwobi looks too tired to manage 60 minutes, let alone extra coaching.
Honestly this is such a weird take. Sterling absolutely set the world on fire for Liverpool, and was starting in the number 10 position for England at euro 2012. He has managed to hugely increase his goal scoring in the last 2 years, but he has been a generational talent for a long time now
It seems that the rest of the PL has Iwobi all figured out by now. If you make a move, he’ll get past you, but if you stand your ground he is harmless. Panics and passes it backwards.
If I wobi is still at the club next season he really needs to improve a lot. He is either a complete waste of space from the first moment, or he starts off like a whirlwind and ends up like a desk fan with a dent. He’s all over the place, dribbling down blind alleys and giving the ball away or taking farty little shots that give the ball away, tiptoeing around like he’s on high heels. I don’t care if he’s come through the academy, I don’t care if he’s Arsenal through and through, he doesn’t have a footballing… Read more »
Where’s the desire???
Sell Monreal,Mustafi,Chambers,Jenkinson
Sell Elneny,Mkhi,Ozil,Iwobi,
Sell Welbeck,Auba
Keep Bellerin,Kos,Socratis,Miles,Mavroponos,Kolasinac,Holding
Keep Xhaka,Geoundozi,Torriera,
Keep Laca
Buy
Zaha,Neves, Keane,One. More proper winger ,a tall strong goalscoring 9
We threw away that 4th place
Arghhhhhhh
We can’t afford Robbie Keane!!
Agree. Except for Zaha; totally overrated, diving fucking cheat. Not in a million years.
We have the easiest run-in, they said…
We did, but fucked it used as usual!!
He’s one of the better players we have and frankly the only senior player at the moment that can independently take on, engage and dribble past players, pull the defense out of position. No surprise most of our productivity has (still) been coming from the left side. We are so lob sided it is easy to defend against us, just concentrate on shutting down our left, the right (particularly without recourse to Bellerin) is erratic. This has been a situation neglected and not resolved since when we had Alexis. We had the opportunity to tackle this last January with Mahrez… Read more »
Its Leicester on the road next up.
We need to focus on that and address some key issues BOTH defending but also in attacking the ball with more hunger (go to the ball) and also in our midfield transition (again those higher up need to show for the ball)
Iwobi: we have to move on. Hey, I won’t complain…
Maybe it isn’t all about mentality, maybe mentality is a smokescreen we use to hide the reality: an average squad having an average season. Maybe lack of effort is because deep inside the squad knows they’re mediocre and are afraid of exposing that reality to themselves if the put in the effort and fail. It seems a lot like an average team pretending to be good and maybe self doubt is the reason for a fragile mentality. In this case however, the self doubt is justified.