It didn’t take a lot of deliberation to come up with our Daily Cannon breakthrough player of the season.

Arsenal breakthrough Player of the Season: Alex Iwobi.

The young forward joins Mesut Ozil (overall) and Hector Bellerin (young) as one of our players of the season.

Alex Iwobi made his first competitive start for the Arsenal first team at the tender age of 19 against none other than Barcelona. We were already 2-0 down on aggregate and just about no one expected us to get anything from the match. However, Arsenal, and Iwobi, didn’t perform too badly. We lost but still… it was Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

Until this point, Iwobi has been given the odd chance here and there, usually in the dying minutes of a match where the result was more or less already determined. But against the Catalans, he proved he had the cajones to run with the big boys.

515989828 lionel messi of barcelona and alex iwobi of gettyimages
BARCELONA, SPAIN – MARCH 16: Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Alex Iwobi of Arsenal compete for the ball during the UEFA Champions League round of 16, second Leg match between FC Barcelona and Arsenal FC at Camp Nou on March 16, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

In our next fixture against Everton in the Premier League, Iwobi got another start and, just before half time, scored. His link up play with Danny Welbeck had already been fantastic and the energy he injected into the side was refreshing.

The forward was started in our next match, this time against Watford, and scored again. Two goals in two appearances for a boy just shy of 20 years of age.

Although he didn’t manage to score in our next Premier League match against the Hammers, he grabbed two assists, proving what an asset he was to the team, even when he wasn’t scoring directly.

After this, he cooled off, which is to be expected from a young lad who’s been thrust under the spotlight. He needs to get used to the intensity, both physically and mentally, but he’ll definitely be something great.

The now 20-year-old already has a better pass accuracy percentage (84.5%) than Theo Walcott (78.6%). Not only this but he makes on average more key passes (0.9 to Theo’s 0.5) than his senior and passes the ball almost three times as much. Stats may not show everything but, in this case, I think they do.