Arsenal: Alex Iwobi Leading New Generation Of Zombie Stars

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 31: Alex Iwobi of Arsenal before the Premier League match between Arsenal and Watford at Emirates Stadium on January 31, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 31: Alex Iwobi of Arsenal before the Premier League match between Arsenal and Watford at Emirates Stadium on January 31, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) /
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Arsenal needs a fire, they need to be motivated because somehow, some way, they aren’t. And Alex Iwobi is proving to be the next generation of zombie.

Arsenal has been devoid of fire for longer than we think, but this year has really made it horribly, painfully obvious. As in, I cannot recall a team laced with more talent achieve so little. And this is what has been happening. If anything, this new team has less fire than the 2012, 13, 14 teams that weren’t as laden with talent.

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Those teams were able to stay in the top four against top opposition and they were fighting off debt as well. Now we have this superior team, in terms of talent, and we are plummeting towards mid-table.

Which apparently isn’t enough to rile up this team, and no one shows this lackadaisical spirit more than Alex Iwobi, who is being spoiled and pampered by Arsene Wenger into believing that nothing can ever go wrong.

Yesterday I wrote about how Iwobi should not have said anything that he did. And I still believe that, a day later, because it is going to rile up the fans even more than they already are. Essentially what he said was that the players are unaffected by the fans discontent.

That’s not what supporters want to hear.

Now I’m revisiting these statements and realizing that Iwobi is literally just the next version of the same thing. He is being raised into a sense of complacency by the Arsenal “spirit” and he is only 20 years old. That’s really disturbing.

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No matter the line of questioning, his answers are the same: “We are unaffected by [insert event]. We just want to win and we are trying our best.”

This latest one comes from him being asked if Alexis Sanchez is affecting the mood in the dressing room. Which, quite honestly, it should be. Alexis wants to win, almost dangerously so. Look at what happened when Chile lost. That should have an effect on you. It should make you want to win more, or try harder.

But not Iwobi. Iwobi is convinced that the team is trying their hardest and nothing will change the course of that.

How, at the age of 20, with so much talent and so much ability, do you see someone who has lived out a career of success (with much more to come), storming around, unhappy with the status of the team, and say to yourself “I’m going to keep doing the same thing”?

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That isn’t right. It’s a horrible mentality and it needs to be cleansed.