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Eberechi Eze was asked in an interview this week if there is a motto that he lives by and his answer was most revealing given how things have been going for him at Arsenal recently. “It’s not about now. It’s the long game,” he told the Men in Blazers podcast before Sunday’s north London derby.
Remaining patient has been a recurring theme throughout Eze’s career ever since he was released by Arsenal at 13 and then rejected by several other clubs before finding a home at Queens Park Rangers. Yet having made an immediate impression after a £67.5m dream move back to his boyhood club from Crystal Palace that peaked with a memorable hat-trick against Tottenham at the end of November, the goals have dried up completely as Mikel Arteta has seemingly lost faith in the England forward.
Eze has made 18 appearances in all competitions without scoring since the 4-1 victory over Spurs and found himself restricted to a bit-part role in the Premier League. He was substituted at half-time after an ineffective display against Brentford last week – a first league start for almost two months – while Bukayo Saka was preferred in the No 10 role against Wolves in midweek. With Arteta confirming on Friday that Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard are both back in contention for the weekend following injury, Eze faces another challenge to force his way back into the team as also he attempts to earn a place in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad.
Not since the last-minute defeat by Aston Villa in December has the 27-year-old been deployed on the left-hand side of Arsenal’s attack – the position where he thrived at Palace and has played most frequently for his country. Eze was culpable for Matty Cash’s equaliser when he failed to track the Villa full-back’s run and that is thought to have done him no favours in Arteta’s highly-tuned system. The Arsenal manager has usually preferred Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli in that role, with Eze’s preference to drop deeper to try to find space often clashing with runs being made by Declan Rice.
“In the last few weeks he has had more consistency in one position and is just trying to understand those relationships where he is more comfortable where he can impact the game more in relation to the opponent,” said Arteta before the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea earlier this month. “That is where we are.”
The statistics show that when Eze does get on the pitch, there has been nothing like the same kind of productivity he managed at Palace. While he attempted 4.6 dribbles per match last season and completed exactly half of those – significantly more than any Arsenal player – this season that figure is down to 2.8 per match, with only 1.6 being successful.
It’s been the same with the number of chances created, which has been a wider issue for Arsenal in general. In his final two seasons at Palace, Eze created 54 and 58 chances (2.4 and 2 per match) respectively, albeit for a side where he was the main creative hub and was guaranteed to play every week. That has dropped significantly this season to just nine (0.7 per match), with some Arsenal supporters feeling that he is being stifled by Arteta in the same way that Jack Grealish seemingly was by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City after his move there from Aston Villa.
“As long as I’m on the pitch and I’m given the opportunity to play and express myself in that environment then it doesn’t matter where I play,” Eze told Ian Wright in an interview after his move from Palace in August. “Of course [the manager] has ideas and things he wants. But for me, I’m free, man.”
That certainly wasn’t the case in the draw with Wolves. Despite providing two excellent assists in the FA Cup win over Wigan at the weekend, Eze looked anxious when he replaced Noni Madueke just after the Premier League’s bottom side had pulled a goal back and also wasted a chance to win the game in injury time when he snatched at a shot inside the area.
Arsenal have only two players – Saka and Rice – in the top 25 for chances created in the Premier League and are fourth behind Liverpool, Manchester United and City in the team standings, with Guardiola’s side having scored 17 more goals from open play than their title rivals. Arteta is in desperate need of inspiration from somewhere with City now breathing down their necks and Eze will hope that his record in previous campaigns could help his cause as the season reaches its climax.
He had a penchant for goalscoring runs in the spring when at Palace and that could be crucial in regards to Arsenal’s hopes of becoming champions for the first time since 2004. Incredibly, of the 38 Premier League goals Eze has scored so far, 18 of them have come in weeks 30 to 38 of the campaign – when it matters most. But first, he must convince Arteta.
