The Improvements Arsenal's Alex Iwobi Must Make to Reach the Next Level

Although Arsenal are armed with more financial firepower than ever before, they still have a remarkable capacity to find room in their first team for academy products.

Two seasons ago, Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin both made the breakthrough into the senior side and have since gone on to establish themselves as vital players in Wenger’s squad. Their influence has been enormous.

Since then, they have been joined in the first team by Alex Iwobi—whose impact has been less heralded but arguably just as important.

Iwobi did not look like a first-teamer-in-waiting when he made his senior bow in a League Cup tie away to Sheffield Wednesday a little over a year ago. Arsenal were brushed aside at Hillsborough, 3-0, and Iwobi was anonymous.

However, Wenger’s faith in his young charge was not shaken.

Over the following months, he gradually introduced Iwobi into his first-team training sessions. The benefit was obvious when Iwobi returned to the starting XI in January. He looked a completely different player, physically and psychologically more robust than the boy who had struggled in Sheffield.

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The perception of Iwobi really shifted one night at the Camp Nou. The Nigerian was a surprise starter in Arsenal’s Champions League tie away to Barcelona. Although the Gunners were not able to secure progression, it was a huge milestone in Iwobi’s individual progress.

Since then, he’s essentially been a regular starter in Wenger’s first-choice XI. The manager prizes Iwobi because he has introduced a fluidity to Arsenal’s attacking game that had previously been frustratingly difficult to unlock. 

Iwobi lubricates Arsenal’s forward line. His movement between the lines is exceptional—he seems to possess a natural instinct for finding space. It’s a quality he shares with Mesut Ozil—with the pair operating in tandem, the Gunners are suddenly a more versatile and unpredictable creative force. 

Ozil remains the superior ball-player, but Iwobi is blessed with the ability to both see and execute penetrative passes. One immediately recalls Theo Walcott’s goal against Chelsea, when Iwobi’s diagonal pass across the penalty area found Bellerin, who squared for the Englishman to score. Walcott took the plaudits, but it was Iwobi’s imagination and technique that really underpinned the goal.

Wenger said earlier this season, per Arsenal's official site:

"

He is not the kind of player who impresses you at first. But when you look a bit deeper he is quick at connecting with other players. Quick analysis.

Football is perception, decision-making and acting. The perception especially struck me. The perception he has of the game and the speed of his decision-making struck me.

When you look at him at first there is nothing special there. But after when you look he is always connecting with others at a very high level and a very high pace. That’s why I think he is improving.

He has still a lot of work to do but he has something that is very important at the top level. Speed and an understanding of the game.

"

Wenger has been looking for a player with this particular combination of qualities for some time. His best sides have always featured a wide playmaker—someone stationed on the flank but with licence to drift infield and dovetail with a more conventional No. 10.

The Invincibles had Robert Pires linking up with Dennis Bergkamp. When Arsenal moved to the Emirates Stadium, Samir Nasri was charged with performing as a non-axial creator. Santi Cazorla also had a spell operating on that left wing before Wenger decided he was more suited to his current deep-lying central role. 

The current tactical setup is actually the closest Arsenal have come to replicating the 2004 model. Alexis Sanchez, like Thierry Henry, is nominally a centre-forward but with licence to drop deep and and wide. Ozil has operated as the Bergkamp-esque creative fulcrum and is even beginning to emulate his goal threat with late runs into the penalty area.

In this iteration of Wenger’s attacking philosophy, Iwobi plays Pires, causing havoc all over the pitch and providing the necessary distraction for Ozil to be afforded the space to flourish.

Of course, Pires was also a great goalscorer—and that’s one of the areas where Iwobi must improve. He scored a few goals for Arsenal at the back end of last season, including an emphatic strike on his Premier League debut at Goodison Park.

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However, he has found goals hard to come by since then and has still to get off the mark this season. Iwobi was presented with a great opportunity to score against Reading but slipped at the crucial moment. Wenger suggested after the game, according to David Hytner of the Guardian:

"

He turns the game forward, he passes the ball through the lines very well, he has a final ball in him. I think he has all in the locker to pass and give the final ball. What you want from him now is the finishing – that’s still a little part that is missing in his game. He is too nervous at the moment when he has the possibility to finish.

"

Iwobi’s lack of goals is in stark contrast to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has already racked up five in 2016/17. Oxlade-Chamberlain represents Iwobi’s main competition for a place on the left flank, and Wenger now faces an interesting choice ahead of the match at Sunderland.

Should he continue with the silky playmaking of Iwobi or opt for a more direct approach with Oxlade-Chamberlain?

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The former Southampton man may offer a greater goal threat but does not fit as seamlessly into Arsenal’s approach play as Iwobi. Nevertheless, the Nigerian will know that he’ll have to heed Wenger’s words and begin adding end product to his game if he’s to see off Oxlade-Chamberlain’s threat.

His defensive work needs to improve, too. Recent weeks have seen Nacho Monreal sorely tested by the likes of Swansea’s Modou Barrow and Middlesbrough’s Adama Traore. While some have been tempted to attribute that to Monreal’s advancing age, the reality is he's simply getting less protection than before.

Monreal was one of Arsenal’s most consistent players last season, but that was with the tireless Alexis playing in front of him. Iwobi’s defensive instincts are not quite so sharp, and his tendency to wander can leave Monreal exposed.

Arsenal play a fundamentally attacking game, but Iwobi must try to strike a better balance to ensure a semblance of defensive security on the left flank. 

It’s clear that in Iwobi Arsenal have a player of enormous potential. Arsenal’s academy has produced another diamond—however, his edges are still a little rough. If he can add goals and defensive diligence to his game, he will be all the more effective.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17. Follow him on Twitter here.