When Eberechi Eze joined Arsenal in the summer it seemed like a good fit – the former Crystal Palace man had returned to his boyhood club, who had also signed an X-factor maverick where their attack was lacking.
Fast forward six months later and Eze’s Arsenal dream is turning into a nightmare. The Englishman had not started many games, and when he was finally named in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI against Brentford last evening, he lasted 45 minutes before being substituted at half-time.
Eze’s stats in that first half against Brentford were poor – 0 shots, 0 dribbles, and 0 important passes – a far cry from the player we’ve seen at Palace for so many years.
We saw one moment of real magic from Eze as he scored a famous hat-trick in the North London Derby win over Tottenham back in November, but he has zero goals and one assist in 16 games since then.
Eberechi Eze’s return to Arsenal has turned sour
It wasn’t meant to be, with Eze returning to Arsenal after failing to make it at their youth academy looking set to become one of football’s greatest legends.
“I thought about coming back from the time I understood other clubs and what it means to be a pro. I always thought: ‘Arsenal is where I am, that’s what I want to achieve, what I want to get to,'” Eze told Ian Wright in an interview with Arsenal’s official site shortly after joining.
The 27-year-old player was full of emotion when he was greeted by the Emirates Stadium crowd on the day he was announced to be signed. It looked like a good fit, so why did it get so messed up?
Explaining his decision to offload Eze at half-time yesterday, Arteta was quoted by The Independent as saying: “I think we needed another type of profile to cause them more problems in those areas.”
Discussing Eze’s struggles in general, the Spanish tactician added: “It’s not easy when you move to a new club, it’s always like this when you play with a team like this. The ball is often not on the floor and you have to constantly break the game and do that, especially for attacking and creative players, it’s very difficult.”
Eberechi Eze = the new Jack Grealish?
Eze’s story at Arsenal feels worryingly similar to Jack Grealish’s at Manchester City – both have gone from being a big fish in a small pond to just another cog in a well-oiled machine.
Like Grealish at Aston Villa, Eze got used to enjoying a free role in a team that wasn’t expected to win every game, and didn’t face frustrating low blocks every game.
In addition, it is important to note that Eze has had to adapt to a more strict schedule at Arsenal than before at Palace, but at the moment it is difficult to ignore that the main problem seems to be the fact that he is not very good in style rather than just fatigue.
Arsenal’s needs, the game says they often find themselves in, are completely different from what Eze was used to at Palace. The question now is, can he adapt, or will he go down and go down as one of the club’s greatest performances in recent history?
“Let everything be successful” was the song that Eze was greeted with when he joined Arsenal. If only football were that easy.
