Arsenal's Eberechi Eze delivers more than just a 'magic moment' as Gunners ease into Champions League quarters

With five goals since the start of February, Eze is turning himself into a key difference maker for the Gunners

LONDON -- A club in Arsenal's position in the summer probably didn't need to drop $90 million on a player in the mold of Eberechi Eze. The boyhood fan was an undoubted superstar, but for Crystal Palace, and it is not a given that someone who has been the man on an upper midtable team will immediately adapt to a secondary or even tertiary role at a contender for the biggest prizes in the sport.

When he has just turned 27, has come off a season that, while unforgettable in the very biggest moments, was a little off the previous year and is not exactly used to playing in the style favored by Mikel Arteta, you have to wonder if this is the right move. The joy that swept from Eze up the Emirates Stadium when he was unveiled on a radiant summer's afternoon was enough to add a rosy hue to even the most stoney-faced assessments of the deal but how much of a pity would it have been if that dream move soured? 

Yes, Kai Havertz's injury needed addressing in the exact moment, but a four-year contract is quite the investment to plug a gap that, in that moment, did not seem like it would run into the new year. And of course, in that moment, no one was to know just how many injuries Martin Odegaard was going to have. So, Eze's signing was probably a riskier piece of business than it felt.

And isn't it a risk Arteta will be glad his employers took? For the biggest fee they committed to a player this summer, they have got something they really needed: a true shooter, the sort of attacker who can take Arsenal's controlled build-up and inject a little bit of oomph. In short, when the ball comes his way with his back to goal, he'll swivel and well, why don't you just enjoy the rest below?

Eberechi Eze with an absolute SCORCHER to beat Bayer Leverkusen’s Janis Blaswich 🚀🔥

William Saliba’s reaction to that golazo says EVERYTHING 😳👏 pic.twitter.com/HKEhm37VMR

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 17, 2026

A foot like a traction engine if ever there was one. On a night like Tuesday, where his side were beginning to slog in what would prove to be a 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal needed what their manager termed a "magic moment." They got one, just like they did in north London derby (take your pick of home and away), just like they did against his former club for his first goal in new colors. 

That has been Eze's great quality for Arsenal this season. He takes the shots that a coach might maybe discourage but perhaps a team as intent on working the perfect shot as this one could do with those. Take his first at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the fourth of five he would score this season against the team he snubbed to fulfil a dream. The ball bounces up awkwardly off his foot after an initial deflection on Bukayo Saka's cross. A less fearless finisher might have taken another touch, Eze lifts his right boot to what seems like eye level but still hits it sweetly. There is similar inventiveness in his winner over Palace. Those have probably been pushed down the standings in the Eberechi Eze Goal of the Season contest by Tuesday's howitzer; not a bad portfolio to have.

To get those wonder goals, you have to be willing to take a few swings in vain. Take Saturday's win over Everton, seven shots from Eze worth a combined 0.15 xG. In isolation, you look at that and yikes. That's not using possessions to their optimal value. And yet given the context of the game, with Everton plugging gaps quicker than Arsenal could craft them open, it rather felt like Eze understood that the potshots would keep the opposition honest, might drag them out from their bunker and, best case scenario, might win the game without any heroics being required from school students.

Eze's average of 0.08 xG per shot is the second lowest among Arsenal players this season -- Odegaard's presence below him does reflect the captain's curious commitment to taking a few more long rangers of late -- but Arteta has never lacked for players like Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and, in his robust way, Viktor Gyokeres who will work for the more high value, close range efforts on their stronger foot. Eze fills in a gap that Arsenal need filling ... and it's happening more and more.

That late-season Eze that Palace fans used to rave about is emerging in Arsenal colors. It's now five goals since the start of February (a generous definition of spring but hey, global warming) and two assists as well. After the England international's brace at Spurs, Arteta said that he was starting to understand how he needed to use Eze. It would now appear that his players have done the same.

"He has the rhythm, he has the understanding with his teammates as well, especially his level of activity," said Arteta. "With the ball, without the ball, in the spaces that he moves, the purpose that he's showing every time he's in and around the box as well. That is the thing and the reason why he's here, to create those kind of moments.

"He's building a better chemistry, a better understanding with all of them. We start to understand him as well much better. When you start to make a good game, a good action, an action like that when you're in the game, that lifts your confidence as well. That's what every player needs."

That reference to what Eze does without the ball might have been thrown away initially but make no mistake, you don't play for Arteta if he is not happy with your application when the other team has the ball. That truth seemed to be hammered home to the No.10 when he let Matty Cash run off him to score for Aston Villa in a 2-1 Premier League defeat in early December. Arteta would subsequently insist that he had not punished Eze for his lax defending but his actions spoke volumes. His marquee signing started only one Premier League game between that error and mid-February, that being at home to bottom-side Wolves. Even now that his worth is starting to shine through he is rarely being trusted with guarding the left wing, instead functioning as more of a second striker in Arsenal's 4-2-3-1.

No one can question his off-ball application now, though. As Leverkusen struggled to find their way through an organized press, Eze won possession in the attacking third as many times as any Arsenal player, despite limping out in the 69th minute with what appeared to be an ankle injury. Against Everton, Brighton and in particular Spurs, he put up similarly impressive numbers. A player who was once the weak link off the ball is living up to expectations.

"Without that, you have no chance to play in this team," was Arteta's forthright assessment. "Everybody does it, and that's the magic of it, and the reason why we are so consistent in winning matches and preventing the opponent to score. 

"He can do it. If he could not do it, I would never demand it. He can do it, he's willing to do it, and he's doing it better and better every day."

Perhaps that is just the time of the season for Eze, but it seems more likely that this is a player who needed more time than most would have expected for an experienced Premier League addition. That he was going to need time to change his style of play from lead attacker in a free role to a contributor on and off the ball was part of why this transfer seemed like a gamble. Right now, it is looking like one that could pay off rather nicely for Arteta and Arsenal.