Arsenal: Alex Iwobi in the driver’s seat of the perfect storm

Arsenal fans were resigned to see Alex Iwobi sold over the summer, but now he’s wielding a perfect storm of destruction to those around him.

I may have been one of the harshest critics of Alex Iwobi over the course of last year. Arsene Wenger’s insistence on making the young lad an Arsenal star was infuriating because that initial breakthrough of brilliance just wasn’t there anymore.

When Henrikh Mkhitaryan came to town, to pile onto Mesut Ozil already being here, I figured it was best to just cut ties with Iwobi and move onto the next youngster with wads of potential who wouldn’t soil himself anytime he got near the goal.

There was simply too much experience and creativity on the team to make much sense of prolonging Iwobi’s stay.

What a different a couple of months can make. Now, Iwobi may well be our most reliable creative midfield attacker out there. So much has gone right for Iwobi that it make me think that more than just fate are willing him to succeed.

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First, Unai Emery is the perfect manager for Iwobi. Breaking the young Nigerian out of that cozy Wenger comfort zone was crucial and we can see why every time he takes the pitch. He looks like a new man. He looks like someone who understood the stakes and rose to the occasion.

Second, Ozil and Mkhitaryan have both been either inconclusive, or literally absent. Sometimes both. Mkhitaryan can’t stay healthy and can’t stay consistent on the pitch anyway, while Ozil has always been more than a bit unreliable, not to be mentioned absent more than his fair share of times.

Thirdly, Iwobi has simply been fantastic. Everything that we loved him for when he first broke through is coming back exponentially, as he has shown even more strength, more creativity, more ball control, and he has taken the opportunity to assert himself as not just the future of the attack, but perhaps the present as well.

It’s a different situation entirely. Whereas under Wenger he was handed everything, to do with what he wanted, under Emery is is being forced to capitalize on opportunities and earn it for himself, which he is doing.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if he started getting even more opportunities as Emery phases in the new and phases out the old. And I hope that isn’t just wishful thinking. The lad has earned it.