Arsenal have agreed a deal for Eberechi Eze of Crystal Palace.
In the mother of all hijacks, Arsenal stole in at the 11th hour to agree personal terms with the Gunners, as per David Ornstein of The Athletic, leaving Tottenham Hotspur bereft, after a move to the Lilywhites appeared to be on the cards.
But where will Eze play in manager Mikel Arteta's system? Let's explain
Eberechi Eze is a fit on the left-wing for Arsenal
Arsenal are extremely biased to their right-hand side: Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard are playmakers who control possession, with Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli tasked as runners, who can break into the box and shoot.
Though he hasn't played as a left-winger much for Crystal Palace, Eze has several of the same traits as Saka: he's a no.10 who demands the ball to create, and he's capable of disrupting defences with his dribbling, which may well balance a little better between the left and right halves of the pitch as this pass network from analyst Scott Willis from the opening fixture against Manchester United shows:
Manchester United vs Arsenal Pass Networks pic.twitter.com/AE4HoSxYvPAugust 17, 2025
The issue that Arsenal may have is that Eze is not a natural left-winger and as a right-footed player who's most dangerous when breaking through the centre of the pitch, he certainly doesn't want to hug the touchline in Mikel Arteta's team.
This is where the left-back has a greater importance in this team. Whether Riccardo Calafiori or Myles Lewis-Skelly takes the role, the left-winger needs an overlap from their full-back behind, to allow them to cut inside in much the same way that Ben White allows Saka to. It's going to take some time to adapt to, for sure.
Eze may be asked to play alongside Martin Odegaard to counter deep blocks
Arsenal used to have no trouble in finding a way through dogged defences but as much as they've struggled to convert chances, creativity against mid- and low-blocks has defined their last two seasons: you only have to look at their unbeaten record against the so-called Big Six since Rice joined, compared to points dropped against the smaller sides who prefer to sit in and soak up pressure.
The rise of these issues coincided with the departure of Granit Xhaka, another high-touch no.8 who would share the burden of creation with Odegaard and while Declan Rice has replaced plenty of the traits that Arsenal lost in the Swiss, we might now see him in the role we expected from the start.
Simply put, when you have a defensive midfielder that good, why play him higher up? Rice's incredible duel-winning could be better served by Arteta putting him as a no.6 behind Odegaard and Eze, as dual no.10s, similar to how Manchester City fielded Fernandinho as a pure destroyer behind Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva in 2017/18.
Arteta has actually tried it before against deep blocks, using Rice in the role in 2023/24's final game against Everton in a 2-3-5 attacking shape when the Gunners were looking for a winner while in the reverse game against the Toffees that season, he started with Fabio Vieira and Martin Odegaard either side of Rice.
There's even a case that Zubimendi could be used in place of Odegaard or Rice or that Arsenal's new Basque metronome could play in defence and invert to control. Either way, having Eze attacking from the left half-space unlocks new possibilities against settled backlines.
Eze could replace Odegaard
Martin Odegaard is a genius in tight spaces, can control games for the Gunners and has seen his best form for Arsenal as one of a few expressive sparks, helping to knit play together but he's not without his weaknesses.
Odegaard struggles when games are played across open spaces: he's not a player who particularly thrives in transition, and though he's creative, he's not a pure output machine in the vein of a Mesut Ozil. He's also stylistically pretty similar to Saka on that right-hand side: a left-footed creator who wants to find the half-space.
There are occasions that call for Odegaard. His off-ball work is imperative to the Gunners, his ability. to dictate play makes Arteta's team tick and among the likes of Saka, Zubimendi and Eze, the Norwegian can be the orchestrator in the final third.
But some games may call for Eze to be that creative midfielder instead. The England international might be needed to overlap Saka if White isn't around or if Arsenal are finding themselves attacking on the counter (as they did against United on Sunday), Eze's a better fit in midfield than Odegaard.
Given that Arteta had to totally rework his system when he lost his skipper to injury last season, having another creator able to step into his role isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity. Eze provides vital creativity centrally even if that may come in Odegaard's absence sometimes.
Could Arsenal even use Eze as a false nine?
There's a strong case that Arteta's perfect forward isn't Viktor Gyokeres or Kai Havertz at all: Arsenal actually looked at their fluid best when Gabriel Jesus was knitting the attack together from false nine, bringing both no.8s into play and being key to the best form of Martinelli's career.
With Jesus recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, however, could Arteta be about to launch his most audacious tactical plan since well, since he last lost his centre-forward and played Mikel Merino up front?
Eze has elite movement, he's a good finisher and he's a strong carrier of the ball: he naturally excels at bringing team-mates into play and he has the mercurial flair that Jesus had in spades.
Arteta has been known to favour a more physical target man up top over the last year but Eze could be a serious option up front. Who knows perhaps Arsenal found their ideal striker, and it wasn't Gyokeres after all
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