Arsenal endured a tough Premier League title race against Manchester City last season, and every game mattered as they finished just two points behind the Champions.
Arsenal fans were tuned into every single Manchester City game, in the hope that they would drop points and lose the advantage in the race, but no such luck came as they won all of their games.
Each of Man City’s opponents came with fresh hope, but Arsenal fans were furious at Fulham before their clash with the league leaders in early May.
Fulham players were filmed flying kites in training in the run-up to Man City’s trip to Craven Cottage, and this was seen as a sign that they were already ‘on the beach’ as they finished midtable.
However, former Arsenal star Alex Iwobi, who joined Fulham last year, has now given his verdict on the criticism his side received.
Alex Iwobi defends Fulham squad after Arsenal fan furore last year
Speaking in an interview with ESPN, Iwobi claimed that the Fulham squad were fully focused despite the criticism from those connected to Arsenal before they lost to Man City.
“People were thinking we’re distracted. If we didn’t put that in the media, everyone would’ve thought ‘oh, they’re focused, they’re focused,'” Iwobi stated.
“We train hard, we’re not gonna train hard for 24 hours of the day. We like to have downtime as well. So after training, some people were relaxing and the media has obviously caught them with the kite, but that was literally like 10 minutes after a gym session. So when we see all of that [reaction], we’re like ‘oh here we go, there we go.'”
Arsenal fans were wrong to criticise Fulham squad in kite saga
At the time, tension was high amongst Arsenal fans during the title race, and Fulham’s meek display as they lost 4-0 to Man City certainly did not help affairs.
Arsenal fans were wrong to criticise the Fulham players though. Despite the lack of relegation jeopardy or a race for European qualification facing them at the time, they were still professionals aiming to win with full motivation.
Former Arsenal players Bernd Leno and Willian were alongside Iwobi against Man City that day, but they were simply overpowered.
What they did in their time off during training, as Iwobi has said, had no impact on their overall performances as top-level footballers.
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