The days of appraising players just by their efforts are long gone. In this stat-crazy era, the effort is not enough if it can’t be interpreted into numbers, more importantly, game-deciding numbers. 

Only a few players have been a victim of this more than Alex Iwobi who was let go by his boyhood club Arsenal after dividing opinions.

Both schools of thoughts had valid points. Iwobi on his day was a joy to watch with his quick transition with the ball, nimble feet and his ability to pick out passes. On his bad days, he frustrates fans with his heavy touches and indecisiveness in the final third. It is this lack of precision in the final third that is consistent with the Nigerian player, good days, bad days, Iwobi has never been convincing with his end product.

Since his emergence at Arsenal in the 2015/2016 season, Alex Iwobi has never scored more than six goals in a season, a poor return for an attacking player at that level. It was why Arsenal were so quick to sell him when in need of cash and why he is still largely divides opinion. 

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Arsenal, however, didn’t sell him because he wasn’t good enough as he was the only player of worth that could get Arsenal some much-needed cash. It's also been obvious so far this season that he is better than some of the options available for Unai Emery.

For Everton this season, he has managed two goals in nine appearances but the problem persists and threatens to yet again ruin his legacy at another club. Iwobi has been brilliant for Everton so far this season but his moments of brilliance are being lost due to his inability to turn them into decisive moments. 

There wasn’t a clearer example than in Everton’s Saturday’s 2-0 win over West Ham at Goodison Park. For the first time at Everton, Iwobi got the No. 10 role as Marco Silva dropped Gylfi Sigurðsson. 

The Nigerian was excellent in Everton’s three-man midfield, giving the Toffees a new dynamism and drove the team forward as much as he could with quick transitions. Everton have been without this type of midfielder that travels with ball with pace and intensity since Ross Barkley who now plays at Chelsea and that made a big difference in the way they played on Saturday.

Iwobi made Everton a whole new side with his play, quickly releasing passes to Theo Walcott, Bernard and Richarlison. That was how their first goal came. He picked up the ball in midfield, turned and drove forward before picking out Walcott who split the West Ham defence with a pass to the scorer Bernard.

It was what Iwobi did all afternoon. He made a massive difference for Everton breaking forward, was very busy breaking the lines in midfield and caused a lot of problems for est Ham. These were what he did best but yet, his final passes would have been better and he let himself down again in front of goal. 

It was midway through the second half when he made a fine run inside the West Ham box that was picked out by Djibril Sidibé but Iwobi could only shoot straight the goalkeeper with lots of time and spaces to exploit. It was a chance he would have buried but his Achilles heels reared its ugly head again. 

While he was brilliant all through this time on the pitch, the Nigerian failed to mark it with a goal he should have scored. Instead, it was Sigurðsson who was dropped after a poor start to the season that came on and scored without breaking a sweat. 

In this era where football is analysed with just stats and numbers, a player like Iwobi could be lost in the conversation. It was his curse at Arsenal and he needs to start being decisive to mark his moments of brilliance.