Arsenal attacker, Alex Iwobi has admitted he was amazed at the manner in which he struck home his club’s winning goal in Wednesday’s night’s pre-season victory against London rivals, Chelsea.
While his Super Eagles colleague, Victor Moses also scored his kick for Chelsea during the resultant shootout, it was Iwobi who made the difference for Arsenal in a cheeky way, which The Gunners’ former under-21 team captain said he does not know how he did it.
Iwobi scored the winning spot-kick as Arsenal triumphed 6-5 in a penalty shootout against Chelsea at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in the International Champions Cup.
Chelsea took the lead early on at the Aviva after a fine header from Antonio Rudiger after just six minutes as the German was left unmarked from a corner and rose highest to head into the bottom corner but Alexandre Lacazette, on as a substitute, slotted home from close range in the 93rd minute to take the game to penalties.
The North London outfit struggled to get into the game and Hudson-Odoi was causing havoc in the Arsenal defence, setting up Morata twice only for the Spaniard to squander both chances.
Hudson-Odoi was then brought down in the area by Bellerin and Morata stepped up but Cech did well to get down and palm away his strike. The striker looked bereft of confidence despite an improved showing against Inter Milan.
The Gunners improved towards the end of the first half and Willy Caballero had to be on hand to deny Sead Kolasinac. Emile Smith Rowe, a late replacement in the starting line-up for Aaron Ramsey who was withdrawn as a precaution, had a decent effort saved before the interval.
Rudiger then had a golden chance to make it 2-0, again from a set-piece, but somehow headed wide after escaping his marker in the area.
Chances were at a premium in a second-half dominated by substitutions, but Alexandre Lacazette missed a sitter with 15 minutes to go, curling wide with the goal at his mercy. Alex Iwobi was then denied by a brilliant stop from Bulka, who had just come on minutes before.
But in the dying seconds, Lacazette made up for his earlier miss, tapping home Reiss Nelson’s sublime delivery from close range
After all 10 of the first penalties were slotted away, Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s effort was saved by Petr Cech and Iwobi made no mistake with the chance to win it for Arsenal, sending Marcin Bulka the wrong way.
Iwobi admitted he was thrilled with his effort, as he took to Twitter to reveal his delight, but admitted it was a kick he never planned for.
He stated categorically in his post that he did not pick a particular approach to enact the penalty kick, adding: “I don’t know how I did it, but I did it… innit!”
