When Arsenal signed Eberechi Eze in the summer, they invited along Ian Wright for his unveiling video and soundtracked it with Sampha’s piano ballad Indecision, complete with the refrain ‘let it all work out’.
‘Do you want to create?’ asked Wright, as the music built. ‘Do you want to excite? Do you want to raise levels? Raise hairs? Raise the roof? Do you want to write a legacy?’
Five months on, Eze is still waiting for things to fully work out and to answer those questions resoundingly.
That’s not to deride Eze. Few question his talent and even fewer query his character. But the transition from Crystal Palace to the champions-elect, into arguably the league’s most competitive frontline and with a £67.5million transfer fee hanging over him, has not been as symphonic as the tune that heralded his coming.
Beyond his beautiful hat-trick against Tottenham, Eze has provided two goals and four assists. Mikel Arteta has benched him for five Premier League games in a row and his only minutes in that period were 12 off the bench against Liverpool. He has flitted between being a left winger, a No10, and an advanced central midfielder.
Wednesday’s trip to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup issignificant for him. It could help shape the rest of his first season at Arsenal and, beyond that, his prospects with England at the World Cup.
Eberechi Eze’s progress at Arsenal has stalled despite his hat-trick vs Tottenham in November
He was benched for five games in a row, only coming on against Liverpool on Thursday, before his start against Portsmouth
Arsenal’s trip to Portsmouth in the FA Cup was vital; the 2024-25 competition was his kingmaker
After all, the cups were Eze’s kingmaker last season. In the FA Cup, he scored three goals en route to the final, each as masterful as the last, then scored the winner against Manchester City at Wembley to deliver Crystal Palace their first major trophy.
In the Carabao Cup, he added a further two goals – both crucial to their games – and a couple of assists as Palace pushed to the quarter-finals, where they came unstuck against the Gunners.
Of course, we didn’t need a few cup ties to confirm Eze’s brilliance, but it spoke to his ability to take big games by the scruff of the neck. He scored the opener in four matches – two of which decided the game – and did so in style.
That’s the buccaneering star Arsenal bought; the sort of man who could rock up to his first north London derby and treat it like child’s play. The sort of man who seizes Champions League nights against Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich like an afternoon in the football cages of Greenwich. The sort of kid who, released by Arsenal, Fulham, Reading, and Millwall, would not take no for an answer.
The next couple of months could prove pivotal for his England prospects, with Thomas Tuchel analysing his options for the international break in March. That will be everybody’s last chance to show what they do in an England kit before Tuchel names his World Cup squad.
Eze will want to be there. His Gunners team-mate, Myles Lewis-Skelly, has already discovered Tuchel’s brutality towards those lacking in club game time.
Obviously, we shouldn’t make a mountain out of a molehill. His recent stint on the bench is not the end of his Arsenal career or England dreams.
Most players go through spells out of the team and when your direct competition is Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, and Martin Odegaard, getting a game is easier said than done.
Eze’s application in training has impressed Mikel Arteta: ‘His level of desire has gone higher’
The forward is competing for minutes with a supremely talented array of attackers
Eze’s England prospects could be strongly shaped by how he plays in the next two months
And Arteta is seemingly happy with what he has seen. ‘His level of desire has gone even higher,’ the Spaniard said last week.
‘The way he trains every day, the way he wants it and wants to do everything it takes to change my mind and give him more minutes, has been phenomenal.
‘That is not easy. It is easy to expect it. But with the level of players we are talking about, that is not easy. I am very confident we are going to see a great version of Ebs in the coming months.’
But Arteta also hinted at Eze’s versatility and you wonder if, in some ways, that might hamstring him. In being a jack of all trades, does he risk being a flexible back-up?
‘He is that intelligent and that good as a footballer that he can occupy any space,’ Arteta said. ‘I am more driven to decide where he plays in relation to the players around him than his position.’
Wednesday is another chance for Eze to stake a claim for a starting spot. He played 90 minutes against Portsmouth and it didn’t quite happen for him. But Arsenal have still have six more games this month and he will want to be involved in as many as possible. Mouth-watering fixtures against Chelsea, Inter Milan, and Manchester United await.
The games against Chelsea and United (Premier League) present a particular opportunity. Both teams are enduring a moment of madness and are unlikely to be the best-drilled.
Arteta got the best out of Eze against Tottenham by letting him roam. The 27-year-old responded with a virtuoso performance, exploiting pockets of space. No need to worry about his work ethic – his meat map for that game shows he still put in a solid defensive shift, despite being given carte blanche.
Eze shone when Arteta gave him the licence to roam against Tottenham in the derby
‘Things happen for a reason,’ Arteta said. ‘And after international duty [with England], he had two days off, and after one day he wanted to train, and he wanted to improve, and he wanted to do extra practice and he was asking me questions about this and that.
‘When a player has such a talent, and his desire is at that level, then these things happen. And he fully deserves it. I’m so happy for him, because since the day that he came, he brought something else to the team.
‘So it’s a joy, it’s an aura that this team needed and hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence to him and the team, that at any moment he can win us a game. That’s the ability that he has and he certainly needs to fulfil that talent.’
Football can be a cruel mistress. Eze has started three of nine Premier League games since then. So much for a turning point. Then again, Arsenal’s brutal schedule will always necessitate rotation. Not even Bukayo Saka is immune.
All the same, the trip to Chelsea on Wednesday feels a big one. A chance to find his feet again against London rivals and remind everybody of what he can do.
Time to raise a roof or two.
