Arsenal legend Martin Keown has responded to criticism of Gunners star Eberechi Eze after a poor performance against Brentford last night
The summer signing from Crystal Palace has endured a tough start to life at the Emirates Stadium, and things went from bad to worse for him yesterday evening.
Eze was handed a rare opportunity to start for Arsenal against Brentford, but he was anonymous in the first half and ended up being hooked by Mikel Arteta at half time.
Peter Crouch thinks Arteta doesn’t fancy Eze, but Keown insisted he could still see the England international coming good once he learns his role better.
What pundits said about Eberechi Eze’s poor performance for Arsenal
Speaking after the game, which finished in a 1-1 draw, Crouch described Eze as a “passenger” who failed to make the most of this chance to impress.
“I believe he hadn’t started in the last nine or something like that, so he got a start today and you think ‘right go and impress Unfortunately he just felt off the boil, he couldn’t get on the ball in the first half,” Crouch said on punditry duty with TNT Sports, as quoted by the Daily Mirror.
“He was a bit of a passenger, if I’m being honest, we called it half an hour in that he was going to come off because for some reason it feels at the moment he [Arteta] doesn’t fancy him.”
Keown admitted that Eze is lacking the qualities Martin Odegaard has at the moment, but still backed the 27-year-old to turn it around once he got used to those demands and details of the role.
“To say he doesn’t fancy him, I think it’s more a case the player doesn’t quite know understand the structure in the same way that Odegaard does,” Keown said.
“Odegaard knows exactly where to be when the opposition have the ball and then picking up those little spaces, little passes and building play. That’s something Odegaard does well and Eze hasn’t quite picked that up yet. It will come in time, I’m sure it will.”
Eberechi Eze’s poor form since joining Arsenal
Eze was a joy to watch during his time at Crystal Palace, and ended his time at the club on a real high as he scored the winner in last season’s FA Cup final against Manchester City.
It seemed inevitable that Eze would then earn a big move, but it just hasn’t worked out for him at Arsenal so far.
Despite that famous hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Tottenham earlier in the season, Eze has just five goals to his name for AFC, and none in his last 16 games.
This has led to Arteta leaving Eze on the bench a lot, and after such an anonymous display last night it might be some time before he’s trusted with a starting place again