Arsenal attacker, Alex Iwobi is again up for knocks, following his insipid performance during his club’s 1-0 loss to BATE Borisov of Belarus in the Europa League, with ESPN.com leading the caustic verdicts on him.
Sports247.ng can report that the Super Eagles star was again off-form in the round of 32 first leg fixture away, as The Gunners fell to a shock loss against a team that has a chain of poor results against English clubs.
Although ESPN still went on to give Iwobi six marks out of ten for his efforts on the night, the portal noted how the playmaker-cum-winger has a penchant for one good match followed by a bad one.
Incidentally, Iwobi was on for 90 minutes in the encounter, as The Gunners’ boss, Unai Emery named a strong line-up, with only two changes from the side that won at Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
They almost opened the scoring inside two minutes when Sead Kolasinac rossed for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but Denis Shcherbitski made a block.
Mkhitaryan’s delivery then flashed across goal, begging for a touch, before Alexandre Lacazette headed over wastefully after more good work from Kolasniac.
The home side offered their first warning when Nemanja Milic skimmed the outside of the woodwork with a near-post flick, after which Dragun headed home on the stroke of half-time.
Arsenal thought they had equalised when Lacazette side footed home from Kolasinac’s cross, only to see the linesman’s flag up for offside.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Lucas Torreira went on to salvage the game, after which Kolasinac went close again, lashing across the face of goal, before being sacrificed for Denis Suarez, but the visitors failed to equalise with a crucial away goal.
They will now seek to undo the damage at Emirates Stadium, with high hopes that Iwobi will be back to his best, though they will be without Lacazette, who got a red card for an elbow on Aleksandar Filipovic.
ESPN.com stated in their verdict: “Alex Iwobi, 6 — The Nigerian tends to have one good game followed by one bad one.
“After a decent showing at Huddersfield at the weekend, he was poor on this night. He seemed more affected than most by the bumpy pitch.”
