Arsenal: Alex Iwobi paving road of potential with good intentions

Arsenal deployed a surprise addition to their starting XI in Alex Iwobi, and while it wasn’t a dynamic performance, he has one major positive.

Arsenal didn’t seem to have very many options with the missing Mesut Ozil. It was pretty conclusively understood that Alexis Sanchez would take his place, but that was not to be the case against Chelsea. Instead, we saw the young Nigerian Alex Iwobi stepping up to takeover Ozil’s position.

It wasn’t the greatest performance. Iwobi looked slow, although it is certainly known that he is lacking for pace, and at times I often wondered why he wasn’t pushing issues a bit more.

The thing with this type of match is that it is incredibly high-paced and any potential success is dependent on being able to strike fast and capitalize on opposing mistakes. Which doesn’t really suit what Iwobi is all about.

Iwobi is looking more and more like Mesut Ozil with each performance (which is certainly not a bad thing). He is a slow, deliberate player. A thinker. He isn’t impulsive or prone to acting rashly. These all sound like good things, and they certainly are. Or, at the very least, they are filled with good intentions.

The problem was just that he was too much like Ozil and this game was actually made a lot better by the lack of Ozil. The high-pace back and forth was conducive for players like Aaron Ramsey or Alexis Sanchez, but not for slower, philosophical players.

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Iwobi still has gobs and gobs of potential and from what we saw today, there is reason to believe he is currently capable of threatening the first team. He did lead the club in chances created, after all.

But these good intentions that he has have to start turning into final products. He had to start learning to fit into the match, no matter what that entails. That is what I feel is the main thing that holds Ozil back, is his inability to acclimate to different styles of matches.

Iwobi shouldn’t fall into that same situation because of the inherent athleticism he has, but as we saw today, he is prone to falling behind. Maybe he had good intentions in trying to slow the game down, but that didn’t suit what the Gunners needed. They needed to keep punching Chelsea while they had them on the ropes, not sit back and analyze where precisely to hit.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Chelsea

I loved seeing Iwobi back out there, but I hope that he learned just as much from the match as we learned about him.

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