Eberechi Eze Provides Arsenal’s Missing Quality in Premier League Title Race

Ugly win, beautiful goal. The history books will record that Eberechi Eze decided Arsenal’s tough, tense win over his old club Crystal Palace with a goal in the 39th minute. That’s all that matters to Arsenal fans, one goal, three points and their lead at the top of the Premier League extended to four points.

League campaigns are very rarely beauty parades; they are about grinding out wins in the competitive elite English division where mid-table teams like Palace cause problems. 

Eze’s goal, his first for Arsenal in the Premier League, could have been a scrappy tap-in for all their fans cared. It came from another dead-ball, cementing Arsenal’s reputation in the eyes of their rivals as “Set-Piece FC.” It’s meant to mock them, to suggest that Arsenal simply rely on free-kicks and corners. Arsenal fans will shrug and smile and point to the table. They’ve not won the title in 21 years. The end justifies any functional means.

It was all about securing the right result, especially with champions Liverpool losing their authority and losing games, the latest at Brentford, and also Manchester City slipping up at Aston Villa.

Arsenal fans whistled and screamed for the referee to blow the final whistle at the Emirates. They almost exploded in frustration when Viktor Gyökeres tried to go for goal in injury time, rather than run down the clock by the corner flag. A roar of relief replaced the noisy nerves when victory was eventually confirmed. 

And yet the goal was worth celebrating for the cunning of Eze’s movement and athleticism and technique of the finish. The quality of the goal mattered because it will enhance the confidence of a new player who had not played particularly well.

The breath-taking nature of Eze’s strike will confirm the wisdom of the recruitment department. It will highlight that Arsenal have a range of goalscorers, an important reality with their new centre forward Gyökeres still getting up to speed, and also with talents like Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke all injured. Arsenal have strength in depth. 

These were the type of games that Arsenal drew last season, difficult challenges against well-organised opponents. Arsenal dropped points in the corresponding fixture in April, frustrated by a late Jean-Philippe Mateta equaliser. Eze opened the scoring for Palace that day. Arsenal saw the damage he could do, so paid £65 million ($86.6 million) to bring him from south London to north and gave him the No. 10 shirt. 

It’s been worn by players of great subtlety of touch before, the likes of Mesut Özil, Robin van Persie, Dennis Bergkamp and Paul Merson. Only time will tell whether Eze, 27, is a worthy owner of the shirt but this goal showcased his capabilities.

His successor in the No. 10 shirt at Palace, Yeremy Pino, naïvely gifted Arsenal a free-kick on the right. As Declan Rice jogged over to take it, Palace fans could have been forgiven a fear-filled sigh. Arsenal are deadly from set-plays. 

All the focus was on Gabriel setting up camp at the far-post and all of Arsenal’s other tall agents of havoc gathering close by. Palace failed to focus enough on Eze, who was 10 yards outside the area, seemingly more a spectator than participant. Adam Wharton was charged with tracking Eze’s movement but his old teammate seemed too far out to be an influence on proceedings. 

As Rice swung the ball towards Gabriel, Eze stealthily made his move, heading towards the area. Gabriel’s ball was directed into the space Eze was attacking, just a yard short of the penalty spot. Wharton wasn’t quite close enough. It still required some gymnastics from Eze to reach the ball, but this is what special talents like the England international can do.

Under the watchful eye of the Three Lions head coach Thomas Tuchel, Eze leapt up, twisting his body in the air. His left foot gave some leverage and his right caught the ball in a scissors motion. The ball flashed past Mateta and Marc Guéhi before they could react, and flew past the Palace keeper, Dean Henderson. Eze had made a difficult technique look easy. 

It was a fine goal worth celebrating but Eze didn’t out of respect to Palace. Such restraint is always a matter of debate between fans. The unwillingness to mark the moment annoys a lot of people. The game is about goals, Eze is employed by Arsenal, not Palace anymore, his job is to score and Arsenal fans wanted him to be thinking of them, not the sensitivities of the visitors. But that’s Eze’s nature: respectful. It’s the way he lives his life. 

Just because he’s left Palace didn’t mean the memories of his time there have left him. 

Eze spoke last week of the “love” he will have for the people at Palace “forever.” He represented them on 169 occasions, scoring 40 goals, winning the FA Cup, getting them into Europe, and is loved in return by Palace fans. The 3,000 away fans in one corner of the Emirates applauded when his name was read out in the lineups. They remembered how professionally Eze behaved in August during all the speculation before his move to Arsenal. 

He even helped Palace win another trophy, the Community Shield. He played the full 90 minutes against Liverpool at Wembley, and then all but six minutes of the subsequent game, against Chelsea in the Premier League. They also knew he was signing for his childhood love. Palace also made £40 million profit on him in five years. 

As he’s settled in at Arsenal, Eze at times looked slightly in awe to be at the club he grew up worshipping. Palace fans were most familiar with Eze drifting in from the left. Here, for Arsenal, he was central, often right of centre in Ødegaard’s continued absence, playing between the lines. He had little space to work in, namely the small rectangle behind Palace’s midfielders, Wharton and Daichi Kamada, and their central defence of Chris Richards, Maxence Lacroix and Guéhi.

The area was tight, especially with Kamada dropping back. But good players create defining moments. Eze did with six minutes of the first half remaining. But never mind the quality of the goal, Arsenal fans were too busy counting the quantity of points. Three more towards their target.

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