Eberechi Eze’s first Arsenal problem is that he is capable of doing exactly what Arteta asks.
That sounds complimentary. It could become limiting.
Eze has already shown why Arsenal wanted him. The clearest example came at Aston Villa. He entered at half time, received on the left with Matty Cash trying to manage both him and Riccardo Calafiori, waited for the defender’s attention to shift, then found Calafiori’s underlap. The cross reached Saka and Arsenal won the game.
The important action was the wait.
Arsenal have plenty of players who know where the next pass should go. Eze is valuable because he can make the defender tell him where it should go. He slows the moment, threatens the dribble and lets somebody else’s movement change the answer.
That is improvisation. Arsenal need to be careful with it.
Arteta’s positional game gives players clean reference points. Wingers know when to hold width. Midfielders know which spaces cannot be emptied together. The distances behind the ball are protected because somebody is usually standing where the structure expects him to stand.
Eze can function inside that. The risk is turning him into another clean positional player.
His best football has always contained a little insolence. Carry the ball one touch longer than the defender wants. Drift towards traffic because the traffic can be manipulated. Receive in a place that belongs to somebody else because the next action is more dangerous from there. Those habits can look irresponsible in a rigid positional model. They are also why Arsenal bought him.
The sample at Arsenal is still small enough that this could be integration rather than instruction. He started in Naples and has been used in different zones. Against Villa, Arteta trusted him to change a difficult game. Against Brighton, he came on with Arsenal already three down, which is hardly a fair laboratory for anything.
I still want more disorder around him.
Put Eze on the left and let him leave the touchline if Calafiori is providing the width. Use him as the ten and let Odegaard sit one out. Bring him on when Arsenal are leading and ask him to keep the ball by beating somebody rather than simply circulating it. Give him a match where the instruction is to find the defender who least wants to face him and spend the afternoon making that player’s life miserable.
Arsenal can absorb the movement now. Rice, Zubimendi, Bruno and Lewis-Skelly give Arteta enough midfield security to compensate for one attacker refusing to behave perfectly.
There is a wider issue here. Arsenal’s attack became easier to defend at times last season because too many possessions arrived at the same organised picture. Five lanes occupied. Rest defence set. Ball moved from one side to the other. Everybody in the correct place.
Correct can become comfortable for the opponent too.
Eze should be one of the players who breaks the picture. If he drifts inside and attracts two players, Tzolis or Calafiori can own the left side. If he receives centrally and carries across the pitch, Saka may get a one against one because the defensive block has tilted. If he loses it occasionally, Arsenal have spent heavily on midfielders who can win it back.
This is the trade.
Arteta has improved dozens of players by giving them structure. Eze may need the reverse treatment. Arsenal should give him enough structure to keep the team safe, then leave a hole in the instructions where his imagination can live.
If Eze ends this season looking tidier than he did before he joined Arsenal, Arteta will have improved the wrong thing.
Gerry G – Goonerviews
