Ian Wright has revealed that he and Patrick Vieira are huge fans of Joao Felix – who rejected Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.
What’s the story?
Well, the Gunners were very keen to bring the Portugal international to the Emirates Stadium.
However – as detailed by The Athletic – Felix chose to join Chelsea instead after finding himself more attracted to the project at Stamford Bridge.
Now, Wright has revealed that he and fellow Arsenal legend Vieira love watching the 23-year-old play.
Speaking on his Wrighty’s House podcast, the 59-year-old said: “I was at Patrick Vieira’s – me and Patrick were watching the game together. Joao Felix, we were waxing (lyrical) about how well he’s playing in his first game.”
Of course, Felix will only be remembered for his red card on his Chelsea debut.
However, the new Chelsea No.11 was actually playing tremendously well before he bizarrely lunged in on Kenny Tete – in fact, he was probably the best player on the pitch.
Felix had six shots before his 58th minute dismissal, with four of those on target – no player on the pitch registered more of either metric, as WhoScored shows.
The on-loan Atlético Madrid wonderkid also won four freekicks for the Blues, on an evening where he caused all sorts of problems at Craven Cottage.
Joao Felix should have joined Arsenal
In our view, Felix made a mistake in rejecting Arsenal for Chelsea.
At the Emirates Stadium, the Portuguese sensation would find himself in a far more fluid system under Arteta, where sources of creativity such as Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka would help him thrive at the top of the Premier League.
Under Graham Potter, Felix contrastingly finds himself sitting tenth in the Premier League, where the Blues have only managed to score 21 goals in 18 games, compared to Arsenal netting 40 in 17 outings.
Of course, Felix could still do well at Chelsea, but we feel his chances of success would have been greater at Arsenal.
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