Arsenal: It’s time to face the facts with Alex Iwobi

Arsenal have been up and down and around the block with Alex Iwobi, but is it time that we face the facts and go from there with his career?

Alex Iwobi was one of those “can’t miss” talents. He was included in every top prospect list of the Premier League, right up there with Marcus Rashford, and every Arsenal fan could see why – that strength, that directness, that creativity, and he has more speed than he gets credit for.

Somewhere between than and now, three-ish years later, it went wrong. And yes, I do mean wrong, not just off track. Things go off track all the time and they can get back on track, but Iwobi has gone off track so many times that it’s starting to look like a question of if he will ever be able to actually remain on track for any consistent period of time.

This year, Iwobi hasn’t been bad. He’s been pretty good, really. But in a season where no one can create a chance to save their lives, you’d have thought that Iwobi would have grasped the chance and asserted himself as the solution that we’ve been begging for.

He hasn’t. And when the opportunity reached its zenith against Manchester City, he looked like a flailing fish out of water. He was hopeless.

And this isn’t the first time he has looked that way. I’ve actually long since lost track of all the times I’ve rolled my eyes and said something along the lines of “oh, this Iwobi is back.” It’s unfortunate, because you can see the talent there, but the talent can only get you so far, eventually you have to sort out to recurring issues, like soiling your britches every time you get close to the goal.

To this day, after so much time spent with the first team, Iwobi still struggles with falling all over himself when he gets near the box. That is unacceptable. He’s almost 23, and that makes him still young, of course, but at what point does the trajectory correct itself when he’s had so many chances to do so already, and has failed every time? It’s a hard question to consider, because I’m sure we all like Iwobi and want him to succeed, but how long do you give him before you cash in on the potential he still has?

In his position, Iwobi isn’t good enough. That’s a fact. He doesn’t produce like he should, he isn’t filling the gaping void. There are issues. So do you keep waiting? Or do you finally face the facts?