Kanu says Arsenal have made a mistake letting Alex Iwobi go, losing a player with the club at heart who would give everything for them.

Iwobi left for Everton in a deadline-day move last month, reportedly worth up to £34m. Sources from Nigeria have suggested the winger was looking for more playing time, and the possibility to play a more central role with a new team.

From an Arsenal point of view, however, Kanu doesn’t think the sale makes any sense.

“I would say they made a mistake, 100 per cent,” Kanu told Goal. “Why they let him go, I don’t know. He’s a boy who, in and out, is Arsenal. He always wanted to do his best for the club. He loves the club, but not only that he can play football.

“What he brings week in, week out, the fans need to appreciate that. I think he is still young and those are the type of people you want in the team, people who grew up here, who knows everything about the club and wants to die for the club.

“He was one of them, so for us to lose him and to let him go, was a shock. I couldn’t really believe we did it, but that’s football.”

Iwobi has already scored a couple of goals with his new team, netting headers against Lincoln City and Wolves. That should give him confidence and the support of the fans for at least a little while, as he settles in with Everton.

So far, the Nigeria international has made three appearances at left-wing, so it doesn’t immediately look like he’s going to play a significantly different role to the one he had at Arsenal. Perhaps all he needed was a change of scenery to push on.

As long as Iwobi keeps scoring goals and having a positive impact at Everton, Kanu will feel he has plenty of justification for his point of view.