EXCLUSIVE: A vital Premier League win for the Gunners won’t come easy against Fulham on Saturday claims visiting ex midfielder Alex Iwobi who says they want the three points
Former Arsenal star Alex Iwobi is predicting a miserable night for his old club when he returns for a crucial match with Fulham FC on Saturday.
The midfield dynamo Iwobi learned his Premier League trade with the Gunners and even won the FA Cup with them before moving onto Everton and then Fulham FC. Born in Lagos, raised in North London, the star can’t see Arsenal getting an easy three points in the vital 5.30pm kick off at the Emirates.
Alex has plenty of friends in North London still but told the Daily Star he has no split loyalties: “I’m Fulham all the way.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I would love Arsenal to win the title this year. (But) it won’t be at our expense. They should’ve beaten Bournemouth. They should have beaten (Man) City.”
Alex still has a lot of friends at Arsenal who are going for their first championship in 20 odd years, does he think they’ve got enough to get over the line? “It’s tough, especially how (Man) City are so experienced at these times in the season. It’s hard for me to say that Arsenal are going to win, and now we’re going to play Arsenal as well.”
Can Fulham sneak into a European spot with four games left? “We still believe, if we win all our games we have a solid chance, so we just have to believe. I mean, we have the players and the quality to do so, it’s just literally pushing and treating it like a cup final, but yeah, we still believe that we can achieve Europe.”
Away from football Iwobi is focusing on music going by the name of 17 – his club shirt number – he’s just released a new nine track EP, More To Life out now.
The Nigerian International is leading a generation of talented big name footballers who moonlight in music, and it’s helping them deal with the intense scrutiny the modern game puts them under.
Alex said: “It’s almost like therapy for me when I go to the studio. A lot of the time me and my friends go to the booth and then literally we just write about what’s on our minds, what we’re going through, or the situations that we’ve been involved with. It can be about love and emotion, it let’s everyone get in touch with their feelings.”
Alex has already worked with 24AM AKA fellow Premier League footballer Amadou Onana, Don-EE (former England youth international Medy Elito) and Skoli (Ajax striker Chuba Akpom, Iwobi’s former Arsenal teammate).
Their classy tunes banish past footballing nightmares such as Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle shaking their mullets to Diamond Lights in the 1980s. Now more stars of the game want to show off what they can do too.
“Rafael Leão (AC Milan), Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Jonathan Esenga (Fulham), I’ve been to a studio with Jonathan Ikone (Paris FC). I think Noa Lang (Roma) makes music,” reveals Iwobi. “There’s even undercover ones – I know a few Chelsea youngsters that do music, but I’m not going to out them yet.”
Nigeria failed to make the World Cup this summer but Iwobi may yet go to entertain his England pals: “Declan Rice has been playing a couple of my tunes, so maybe I’ll ask him to try to persuade England to let me do a gig.”
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