My slightly lukewarm take is that the Arsenal squad is currently too big. I strongly suspect that the club probably know this on some level but have heavily stacked their deck for this season because they are making a bet on winning one of the big trophies. I also suspect they realise players will likely want to leave in the summer in search of game time and there will be some natural attrition.
That means that good players are not going to get onto the pitch at all, some won’t even make the match day squad. Even with Declan Rice missing against Brighton, Ethan Nwaneri did not make the bench and Eberechi Eze was an unused substitute. Eze now hasn’t appeared in the Premier League since being substituted in the 57th minute at home to Wolves on 13 December.
Is this something that should concern us? Should we, as fans, care at all about the feelings of individual players while the team is winning? In Eze’s case, I think it’s certainly true that his failure to track Matty Cash for his first half goal at Villa Park early last month has counted against him.
We haven’t seen much of Eze on the left yet, largely because Martin Odegaard has been injured on a few occasions this season. Eze started at Villa Park on the left wing and after Cash raced past him on 2-3 occasions, Arteta made a change at half-time and he has not played there since.
Moving to Arsenal has been an adjustment for Eze, of course. Not just tactically but in terms of no longer being the attacking sun that the team orbits around. At Palace, he had a very free role as the main man, his adaption calls to mind the same one Jack Grealish had to undergo when he moved from Aston Villa to Manchester City and he had to adjust to playing in a team where the game plan was no longer, ‘just give it Grealish.’
The main barrier for Eze during this brief period of ‘exile’ (if you want to call it that) is depth. Martin Odegaard has come back into the team and has purred with intent. On the left-wing, Leandro Trossard has been one of Arsenal’s best and most consistent performers so far this season. I actually suspect that when Arsenal stocked up on attacking goodies like Gyokeres, Madueke and Eze this summer, they probably would have been open to a good offer for Martinelli.
One of the reasons that Trossard is so difficult to dislodge from the team is not just his very consistent output but that he is a jack of all trades. He is skilful without quite being a Madueke style one-on-one merchant. He is quick without quite being Martinelli quick. And he can match Eze when it comes to sticking the ball into the onion bag.
Arsenal have some quite specific profiles in their forward line but Trossard is a safe bet because he does a bit of everything. I think there have been game states that have not really favoured introducing Eze from the bench recently. At Everton, Arsenal had a one goal lead and Martinelli and Jesus’ pace on the break were favoured and when exactly the same scenario unfolded at home to Brighton a few days later, we saw the same players introduced from the bench.
Madueke and Eze were both unused in those games and I suspect that’s because these are ‘broken play’ players who specialise in risk and with a one goal lead, Jesus’ technical security and Martinelli’s pace in behind were a better fit. At Everton, Arsenal’s game plan was centred on keeping the ball, keeping it away from Everton and not allowing transitions.
They enjoyed 65% possession on Merseyside, the highest possession count for an away match this season (with the exception of Port Vale in the League Cup), for that type of game plan, Martin Odegaard’s security on the ball is always going to be favoured. Against Aston Villa, I think the number of enforced changes worked against Eze.
Timber and Gabriel could not quite go the distance and Mikel Merino needed to be taken off because he was pretty fortunate not to be sent off. As well as this, Martin Odegaard was simply sensational and I suspect that Arteta simply did not want to take him off. Had Arsenal been chasing any of the aforementioned games, I suspect Eze would have been pretty much the first attacker called for.
I think one of my worries about the Arsenal attack is the huge divergence in player profiles. On one hand, diversity is strength and all that. On the other, I think such an approach risks your balance. If Odegaard were to pick up another knock, for instance and Eze began playing in midfield again, you’ve suddenly got a totally different player with very different requirements.
I also think it risks players falling into specific boxes and not developing. I look at someone like Leo Trossard and how his overall game has developed during his time at the club. At the same time, I entirely accept the push back that Arsenal are trying to win the biggest trophies as opposed to becoming an elite academy for player development.
There is a good challenge for Eze to improve his out of possession game, I think the willingness is there for sure but that his defensive instincts are not natural. It is going to take work because Arteta’s Arsenal is a starless team in that respect, even Bukayo Saka has to roll up his sleeves and muck in off the ball.
The challenge for all Arsenal’s new attackers- Eze, Madueke and Gyokeres- is to not become typecast for specific scenarios. Your best players are trusted in pretty much every circumstance. Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard- none of these players are considered unsuitable for certain game states and scenarios. They are always trusted in every circumstance and that is the challenge for Eze and others.
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