If we’re being honest, up until he broke the deadlock, Eberechi Eze wasn’t having much of an impact against his former club.
In the opening 23 minutes, the midfielder gave the ball away four times. His radar was off, and with Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada snapping at his heels in midfield, he struggled to find rhythm – though the same could be said for a few others in red and white.
“When we tried to do something, they adjusted to it, the way they are set up, they don’t jump to things, they don’t get attracted to things,” said Mikel Arteta afterwards.
Not that Palace’s organisation came as a surprise.
“I said to the boys, we’re going to have a long match, we have to be really stable emotionally, very direct when we have the opportunity to attack them and take our chances, because there’s not going to be that many.”
He wasn’t wrong. Arsenal managed just three shots on target from 60% possession, generating an xG of 1.14. Thankfully, one of those efforts – a stunning scissor-kick from Eze after Gabriel nodded down a Declan Rice free-kick – found the back of the net.
It was the kind of quality that convinced Arteta to spend more than £60 million on the midfielder last summer, having seen him score a similarly spectacular effort against Arsenal back in April.
“Yes, 100%. To strike the ball in the manner that he did it, very similar to where he did it last year, but against us when he scored from that corner, directly on the post.
“So he’s got the ability to do that, against a team that defends with that many bodies, so physical, don’t allow any space with nine defending your best player, you have to generate chaos or open space to generate big chances and he took the ball and the goal really well.”
After the break, Eze looked far more comfortable as Arsenal increased the tempo. A clever first-time pass to Gabriel Martinelli, which sent the Brazilian racing through on goal, underlined his growing influence, but Arteta knows there’s even more to come.
As for how Eze handled facing his old teammates, Arteta said: “I didn’t see any difference. He’s always super relaxed before the game, always a big smile on his face. He’s desperate to play games, and I haven’t noticed anything different.
“It might be inside him, he was there a long time, he has such strong feelings and gratitude to Crystal Palace, and today was a very special game for him.
He added: “It’s not [easy against your old team], that’s what big players do and he’s certainly a big player.
“Hopefully that’s going to give him a big boost and confidence to generate many more moments like this, because these are the moments that sometimes define a season.”
With Martin Ødegaard still expected to be out for another month, Eze will continue to shoulder the creative responsibility. Two goals and three assists in 13 appearances mark a solid start – and the sense is that his influence is only just beginning to grow.
The post Arteta hopeful Eze can deliver more magic moments appeared first on Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site.
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