Prior to this season, the versatile midfielder – who has been with the Gunners since nine – has only been fed with ideas from the legendary Wenger.
Alex Iwobi is relishing the new ideas Unai Emery has brought into Arsenal.
T he Basque-born tactician was brought in to replace Arsene Wenger who departed last season after 22 years in charge of the North London outfit.
And in spite enduring two losses in their opening two games, Iwobi – who, since breaking into the senior setup in 2015, had always played under Wenger – claims everyone at the club is enjoying the new ideas the former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain coach is instilling.
“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.”
Iwobi seems to have benefitted from the manager’s new plans, starting and scoring in their 3-2 loss to Chelsea last weekend.
The Nigeria international will hope to keep his place when the Gunners play rivals West Ham United on Saturday.
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