So, well the inevitable happened, and all of us expected it. However, it is a bit weird ain’t it?
The sight of the tall, weary-looked Frenchman with his beautiful smile at the touchline during Arsenal games would be sorely missed. Wenger, as a manager, based his management on his handling of young lads. He instilled confidence and faith in them to come out on the top, and it worked with some players. However, towards the fag end of his career, players took advantage of his complacent and easy-going nature by constantly underperforming, on the back of an assurance of first-team place. As the legendary Frenchman enters the last few days of his Arsenal career, there might be many players who would fear their place in the squad after his departure. Here, we look at five such players:
- Alex Iwobi:
The Nigerian forward has been lambasted for his lacklustre performances regularly, despite being given enough chances to prove himself. His attitude has been under scanner too, as he was accused of unfairly partying before matches and Wenger defended him too. Despite the flashes of brilliance, he is woefully inconsistent in front of the goal and has scored just twice in 21 appearances this season. Iwobi has been touted to make it big in the Arsenal shirt but Wenger’s departure could mean that the Nigerian will have to switch clubs too. Arsenal players need to better up their approach towards the game and Iwobi hasn’t done it, or doesn’t look like doing it in the near future too.
- Mohamed Elneny:
The Egyptian was signed to facilitate Granit Xhaka play in a more advanced position. However, Elneny has barely played well in the defensive midfielder position, as his concentration and game-awareness is not up to the level of a holding midfielder. Required to sit in front of the defence, Elneny is prone to regular errors as he allows the play go through him and fails to track back on time to stop those attacks. Though his passing is brilliant and accurate, Elneny’s positional play leaves a lot to be desired. Wenger had placed huge trust in him but now it remains to be seen where the future lies for Elneny.
- Shkodran Mustafi:
Shkodran Mustafi has to emerge as a leader in the defence for Arsenal as his experience and calm-headedness should be enough for him to guide the other defenders. However, Mustafi has been extremely vulnerable to them as his poor reading of the game, slow feet, and complacency has given the opposition forwards to get behind him. He was downright ridiculous against Manchester City in March as Mustafi was too slow to react to attacking plays from City and he might be one of the players whom Arsenal would want to get rid of once Wenger leaves the club.
- Danny Welbeck:
Back in the day, Danny Welbeck had the opportunity to become the local hero of Manchester; but the lad squandered it and came to Arsenal. His approach and attitude didn’t change here too and Welbeck has been very inconsistent all through his stay at the Emirates. His ability to be clinical one day, and then be invisible on the field in the next match does not go down with many fans. Despite this, Wenger has given him regular chances to prove himself. However, as time progresses, the board and the club would have had enough of him and hence his stay at Arsenal would be doubtful after Wenger’s departure from the cub.
- Jack Wilshere:
I still believe that Jack Wilshere is the best midfielder in England when he is fully fit. However, constant injuries and niggles have terribly hampered his career at Arsenal. It is clearly evident that Wilshere loves the club, and has shown his passion and desire on numerous occasions. He has the talent to back up his attitude too, but his body continues to disappoint every single time. Wilshere has managed to stay fit this season, but the intensity of his game is decreasing as he looks to play through the ninety minutes rather than vastly influencing the course of the game. It would be interesting to see whether he could extend his playing career at Arsenal, beyond Wenger’s stay.
