During Arsene Wenger’s time at the club, Arsenal have adopted a few defining characteristics.

They try to play attractive football, consistently fail to make what seem like obvious defensive signings and, finally, look to bring young players into the first-team.

Wenger has had great success moulding talented prospects into world-class footballers, with some of the notable examples being Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas. Even in recent years, when he’s been under pressure from some of his own supporters, he’s still looked to the long-term and given chances to promising youngsters.

Arsenal fans will be pleased to see one of their own coming through this season and Nigeria international Alex Iwobi looks as though the break through to the first team wasn't mere luck. He could be a mainstay of the Arsenal team for some time to come, however for every Iwobi, there are many more that don't make it.

So on the youngster's 20th birthday, here are FIVE who, like him, has the world at their feet in the red of Arsenal, but failed to progress...

Jermaine Pennant

Arsenal signed Pennant from Notts County for £2m when he was just 16, which understandably led to huge expectations for the promising winger. He made his debut aged 16 years and 319 days - making him the club’s youngest-ever player at the time. He also scored a hat-trick on his full league debut against Southampton.

Yet, problems off the field prevented Pennant from living up to his potential at Arsenal, and he’s had spells at Birmingham City, Liverpool and Stoke City. Now the winger plays for Singapore’s Tampines Rovers FC, somewhat summing up his slide.

Benik Afobe

A string of loans over his five years at Arsenal in the Football League, Afobe finally found his feet at MK Dons, where he scored 19 goals in 30 games in his half season there, including two in a 4-0 League Cup win over Manchester United. Wolves signed Afobe in January 2015 where he struck up an excellent partnership with Mali forwards Bakary Sako and Nouha Dicko that almost got Wolves into the last Championship play-off place. Afobe finished that season with 13 goals in 21 games for Wolves, and 32 over the season. With Sako out of contract and Dicko injured, Afobe wasn’t quite as prolific in his second season at Molineux and left the club in January for Premier League side Bournemouth, where his goals have helped steer the newly promoted club to near-safety.

Jeremie Aliadiere

Aliadiere was a product of the famous Clairefontaine academy, and one of his former coaches ranked him alongside Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka as one of the most promising French strikers to come through in a decade.

He joined Arsenal ahead of rival interest from some of Europe’s leading clubs at the age of 16, and made a very encouraging start, equalling Michael Owen’s record of nine goals on the Gunners’ way to lifting the FA Youth Cup in 2001. It never really worked out for him at first-team level, though, even if he did win a league medal after making 10 appearances during the club’s historic unbeaten campaign in 2003/04.

He joined Middlesbrough in 2007, before a fairly successful spell with Lorient in his homeland, and he now plays for Umm Salal in Qatar.

David Bentley

There were genuinely high hopes for Bentley when he progressed through the ranks at Arsenal, and was often compared to club legend Dennis Bergkamp. The winger scored a glorious chip against Middlesbrough in 2004 to open his account for the Gunners, but quickly became frustrated with a lack of first-team opportunities and joined Blackburn Rovers in 2006.

He impressed at Ewood Park and earned a £15 million move to Arsenal’s fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur, but his career was never quite the same after that. He only played 42 league games for the club over five years, with a number of unsuccessful loan spells in between. The former England international retired from football at the age of 29, claiming he’d fallen out of love with the game.

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie

Owusu-Abeyie was released by Ajax as a 16-year-old because of problems with his attitude, but he was snapped up by Arsenal and scored 17 goals in 20 appearances at youth level in his first season in England. The forward’s speed and skill caught the eye during his early showings at senior level, but he left in search of first-team football after the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott in January 2006.

He’s been something of a journeyman since leaving the Gunners, playing for nine different clubs in the years since. He joined Portuguese club Boavista on a one-year deal in the summer of 2014, but the Portuguese side elected to release him last summer.