Eberechi Eze will always have his hat-trick in the north London derby. For that act alone, he will forever have a place in the hearts of Arsenal supporters. But rather than representing a springboard for his Arsenal career, that breathtaking performance in November has instead come to symbolise the peak from which he has since tumbled.
Where has that Eze gone? And who is this current version? Those are questions that Arsenal supporters have quietly been asking themselves in recent weeks, and now the conversation will become much louder. In this damaging draw at Brentford, Eze produced another worryingly anonymous performance.
In his 45 minutes of action in the first half, Eze touched the ball only 17 times and completed just nine passes. Arsenal’s No 10 is supposed to be their creative focal point in possession and their presser-in-chief out of it, but the worrying reality for Eze was that he was neither here. He hardly touched the ball, and he certainly did not disrupt Brentford when they built up from the back.
A total of 15 games have now passed in all competitions since Eze last registered a goal or assist. In his last two Premier League starts, against Wolves in December and Brentford here, he has been removed from the game after 57 minutes and 45 minutes. In both of those matches, Arsenal failed to have a single shot on target in the first half.
“It’s not easy when you move to a new club, it’s always like this,” said Mikel Arteta. “And when you play against a team like this, and the ball is a lot of times not on the floor, you have to be constantly breaking the play. To do that, especially for attacking and creative players, it’s more difficult.”
Evidently, there is an issue of adaptation. No one can doubt Eze’s talent or ability, because he has already displayed it so thrillingly in the top-flight of English football. But it feels increasingly fair to doubt whether this £60m signing is capable of adjusting his game to the many demands of a title-chasing side such as Arsenal.
At Crystal Palace, Eze was the man around whom much of the attack was built. He often had the freedom to move across the pitch in search of the ball, and then express himself with it. He also had more space to operate in, as Palace rarely faced deep-lying defences.
At Arsenal, the responsibilities are totally different. Arteta needs him to be a cog in the machine, serving the wider purpose and aligning with the overarching system. Some might argue that Arsenal would get the best out of Eze if they built the team around his specific qualities, but that is simply not going to happen. Arteta cannot and will not reshape his entire side for one man, especially when he already has so many other attackers at his disposal.
There are obvious similarities between Eze’s situation and the first season of Jack Grealish at Manchester City. A flair player, moving from a club where he was the main man to a bigger side. Grealish struggled in his first campaign at City after transferring from Aston Villa, but then cracked it in time for the second. He changed his game, sacrificing many of his maverick qualities, and won the Treble.
Grealish’s transition from soloist to system player was not particularly thrilling for the neutrals, but it did make him fundamental to City. Eze could perhaps follow that same route, although he will need more time on the pitch if he is to do so. With club captain Martin Odegaard ahead of him in the midfield pecking order, that could be difficult.
Perhaps the left wing will be a better position for Eze going forward. Arteta, though, appears to have stopped regarding the 27-year-old as an option on the flank. Eze’s last league start in that position was against Villa in early December, and he was substituted at half-time after failing to track opposition goalscorer Matty Cash. Arteta subsequently took responsibility for the goal, but his selection decisions speak louder than his words.
The good news is that Eze so often comes alive in the latter months of the season. In each of his last three campaigns, he has exploded into top form in April. He may need to do so again this year, if he is to justify the expectation around his arrival and show that his Arsenal career can be so much more than the hat-trick against Spurs.