Arsenal star enters last chance saloon vs Brighton as ‘frustrated’ Arteta poised to take action | OneFootball

Take away his two games against Tottenham and Eberechi Eze might just be leading the way in the Premier League flop of the season stakes. With Kai Havertz nearing full fitness and Martin Odegaard not far behind him, there’s an awful lot resting on the £60m summer signing’s display vs Brighton on Wednesday.

His first Arsenal goal being the winner against his former club and his other five in the Premier League coming against the Gunners’ bitter north London rivals whom he was days, perhaps even hours away from joining instead of them suggests a) Eze’s return to his boyhood club was meant to be, b) The Narrative is all powerful, and c) he’s not got close to what Arsenal expected from him in his debut season.

The only Premier League game in the previous 11 he started before the NLD he was hooked at half-time in and his failure to displace an out-of-form Martin Odegaard from the Premier League starting XI and Bukayo Saka being crowbarred into the No.10 role is damning of his first campaign at the Emirates.

Arteta urged Eze to turn his “manners” into “huge performances that decide football matches” after he did just that against Spurs for the second time this season.

“You see how players react in relation to certain decisions that you take. When you have better games, when they have certain difficulties throughout the games,” he explained ahead of Sunday’s clash with Chelsea.

“His role has been modified a few times throughout the season, his reaction has always been top – that’s what we need, because he’s been exceptional in the manner that he’s behaving every single day.

“What we need is for those manners to be transformed into huge performances that decides football matches, that’s the reason why we bought him.

Pressed on whether it’s more about understanding the player emotionally, Arteta agreed, but suggested the shift is also tactical.

“Yes, I think so, and tactically as well. To understand him, you have to understand how he connects with other players. What are the best connections that we can build in and around him in the spaces that he’s more comfortable to use.

“There are certain behaviours that he’s changed dramatically into really positive things. In the end, you don’t know if you’re going to see them in a week, two weeks, or a month. But they’re coming.”

But the victory over Chelsea saw Eze return to his mediocre norm in an Arsenal shirt. His brightest moment came when he attempted to lob Robert Sanchez from the halfway line and it was a performance of poor decision-making and stunting Gunners attacks through sloppy touches besides. Football.London claimed Arteta was ‘visibly frustrated’ as he watched the playmaker frequently cede possession.

Few would have been surprised to see him drop to the bench against Brighton on Wednesday, and can count himself lucky that Kai Havertz’s injury issues continue to keep him from playing 90 minutes.

But the German international can’t be far away, and given the brief but impressive link-up play between him and Viktor Gyokeres, anything but a significant improvement from Eze on his performance against Chelsea and essentially any game save for the stat-padding, flop-avoiding wins over Tottenham will make this clash with Brighton little more than a stay of execution in the Arsenal starting XI.