How Eberechi Eze will fit into Arsenal’s new-look team | OneFootball

Eberechi Eze and Arsenal, a marriage made in N7. He is exactly the player they need, a dribbler with creative spark who can break down the most stubborn defences; they are the club he most desires, able to fulfil his ambition to challenge for the Premier League and Champions League, and the only one club who can soothe the scars of his youth.

“I was 13 [when Arsenal released me],” Eze told The Independent in 2020, then a young breakout star at QPR. “I remember crying in my room for a solid week, my mum telling me that it’s going to be OK but not being able to get over it. Then I went to Fulham and I was finally starting to enjoy my football again. We played Arsenal a few months later but, when I went over to shake the academy manager’s hand, I started welling up. All the feelings came back.”

Eze came close to signing for Tottenham this week but if he was ever to leave Selhurst Park, Arsenal always felt like the rightful home for his peak years. Yet there remains a question about his place under Mikel Arteta and exactly where he fits in to the team. Tottenham would have built the side around Eze’s creativity in the No 10 role, but he will have to carve out his own space in an Arsenal squad brimming with talent.

Arteta was clear about Arsenal’s shortcomings last term, bemoaning a lack of “purpose and direction” in the final third against Manchester United in March and suggesting his players needed to deliver more “magic moments”. Eze is certainly that type of player, someone who can unlock the sort of doors Arsenal were regularly banging their heads against. Arsenal’s expected goals tally of 60 ranked seventh in the Premier League last term, well behind their title rivals (and below Palace), and there was an acknowledgement within the club that their attacking output urgently needed addressing this summer.

open image in gallery

How Arsenal could line up with Eberechi Eze on the left of a front three (The Independent)

After the signings of Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Martin Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard and now Eze, Arteta has a raft of different combinations to deploy in midfield and attack. His attacking weapons include the pace of Gabriel Martinelli running behind a high line, the direct dribbling of Bukayo Saka against a deep defence and the intelligent movement of Gyokeres in the final third. Martin Odegaard can thread a pass, Declan Rice will crash the box, and the beauty of Eze is that he can do a little bit of everything on the ball.

Arteta is likely to use Eze off the left wing, where he has played both for Palace and England. Left-back Riccardo Calafiori looks to be very attacking this season on a mission to make overlapping runs down the wing, and that will allow Eze room to drift inside and influence the game. Martinelli’s patchy form over the past 12 months could see him replaced by Eze on that side.

But Eze, who was one of two No 10s for Palace in Oliver Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 last season, is also likely to be deployed in an attacking midfield role as a No 8, either replacing Odegaard as the most advanced midfielder when the captain is in need of a rest, or playing together with Odegaard and a holding player in either Rice or Martin Zubimendi.

The latter shape – with Eze and Odegaard as dual No 8s – will be a fearsome attacking setup against low-block defences at the Emirates, and especially when chasing a game and in need of a late goal. In this era of five substitutions, football is increasingly a game of two uneven halves: the first hour when the starting XIs stay largely intact, and the final 30+ minutes when half of the outfield personnel are replaced. Eze offers the chance to recalibrate midfield late in the game and perhaps win some of those 14 games Arsenal drew last season.

open image in gallery

Eberechi Eze is set to join Arsenal before the transfer deadline (Getty Images)

Over the past two seasons, Arteta has deployed Rice as a box-crashing midfielder on the left side of central midfield, so there will be a conundrum to solve. If Eze drifts inside from the right wing, does he step on Rice’s toes? And if he starts inside as a No 8, does Rice then have to vacate his best role?

Wherever Eze plays, Arteta will want to get him on the ball in that left half-space where he is most effective. Perhaps the most pertinent question is not where he fits in but whether Eze becomes an integral part of the starting XI, someone who demands to be picked whatever the opponent, or whether he finds himself used as an impact player and a rotation option who can ease Odegaard’s workload.

The suggestion this week that Havertz’s knee injury was the reason Arsenal pushed so decisively to seal the Eze deal might hint that he is seen as someone who bolsters their attacking options rather than a crucial cog to build around. But if he can make a habit of breaking open the type of well-drilled defences who keep Arsenal at bay, 13 years after the club cut him adrift, Eze will become essential.