Interview

‘Everybody’s enjoying and buying into the ideas'

Alex Iwobi

Alex Iwobi is relishing his new challenge under Unai Emery.

Having joined our academy as a nine-year-old, the forward grew up with Arsène Wenger in charge, but has enjoyed the start to life under our new head coach.

 

“It’s exciting times to be fair,” Iwobi told Arsenal Player. “Everybody’s enjoying and buying into the new ideas. For me personally, I’m enjoying the new sessions, the new training methods and the new ideas, so I’m enjoying my time with him.

 

“He demands a lot. He’s a lot more intense, a lot of high pressing and keeping the ball so that it benefits us if we have the ball. It’s good for us, especially the attackers who like to have the ball a lot.

“It’s making me feel a bit sharper, I’m doing things with a bit more intensity. It’s not just for me, though, I feel like I’m helping the team a lot more. It’s benefitting me a lot more.

 

“Whenever something in the system changes, you have to prove yourself again. But wherever you go, you have to prove that you’re better than whoever else is on the team. At a team like Arsenal, that’s always going to be hard so I always have to be on it in training and matches.

 

“I’ve got to be different. It’s going to be hard because we’ve got so many attackers and so many world-class players, so I’ve just got to prove that I’m on that level or as good as them so that I can be ahead of them, which is my aim.”