'He Was Not Doing Badly' - Arsenal Coach Refuses To Publicly Criticize Showboating Winger

Arsenal coach Unai Emery has refused to criticize Alex Iwobi for his performance in the 4-2 win vs Tottenham Hotspur in which he was substituted at half-time, saying it was a tactical decision to replace the number seventeen.

If the stats are anything to go by, the Hale End Academy product had a poor game in the North London derby, with no key pass made, no fouls won and no take-ons completed before he was replaced.

On top of that, Iwobi was guilty of playing to the gallery and losing balls, two negative traits which caused Arsenal to concede in the penultimate round vs Bournemouth.

Germany international goalkeeper Bernd Leno praised the Spanish tactician for his half-time team talk and those two substitutions at half time, taking off Iwobi and Mkhitaryan.

Reacting to the comments made by Leno in the pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Manchester United, Emery was quoted as saying by arsenal.com : ''Change something special - I changed two players at half-time, but not because Iwobi and Mkhitaryan were doing badly, but because we needed to change and push with different players.

''I explained yesterday that Aaron has experience in derbies like yesterday, and the second was that I thought we could do better with players with the capacity to score against them. ''

Iwobi has started and completed only two matches played by the Gunners in the Premier League this season, against Leicester City and Crystal Palace in October.

Igho Kingsley

Photo Credit : arsenal.com