“Yeah, a lot going on,” Eberechi Eze says, as he considers his summer just gone and laughs at the deliberate understatement. Where to start? Because there was so much drama, so many stunning details on his transfer journey from Crystal Palace to Arsenal, which almost took in a re-route to Tottenham. Actually, the last part is not completely true. Eze always wanted Arsenal and they were never going to let him go anywhere else.
How about at the beginning? On England duty, which is where Eze finds himself again, preparing to fly to Belgrade for the crunch World Cup qualifier against Serbia on Tuesday night. It was early June and he was in Barcelona, getting ready for England’s tie against Andorra. Thomas Tuchel had decided to take the players away for a week of warm-weather training and in the background for Eze was the drumbeat of speculation.
He had finished the season as arguably the most in-form player in the English game, the cherry on top of a free-scoring run being his winner in the FA Cup final against Manchester City. It helped Palace to secure the first major trophy in the club’s history and cemented his status as a legend at Selhurst Park.
Everybody knew what the months ahead promised – a starring role for Eze in the soap opera that is the transfer window but he had his coping strategy at hand. “For me, it’s fairly easy,” he told a small group of newspaper reporters. “Just spend a lot less time on social media looking at what people are talking about and focus on what is going on now.
“I speak to my family and the people around me and I try to keep a tight bubble around me because I also know how exposure to those types of things can affect you. They will take care of themselves later on.”
Live in the moment. Stay firmly within it. Eze sees it as his maxim. Never was it more apparent than when the Arsenal move was sealed and he was presented on the Emirates Stadium pitch before the club’s Premier League game against Leeds on 23 August.
It was genuinely beautiful, so emotional; the connection between the crowd and Eze electric because everyone knows the story – how he supported Arsenal as a boy and signed for their academy only to be released as a 13-year-old, a decision that devastated him. Now he was back and he looked determined to savour every second of the little stroll, not to rush it as he held the badge on his Arsenal shirt and blew kisses to the fans.
“I was trying to [savour it] because as you know, you have that moment and then that it’s – gone,” Eze says. Did everything flash before his eyes? “Honestly, not really. I was just there, looking at the crowd and watching everything happen. It was a cool moment – more for my family, seeing what it meant to them. I think that’s the special thing for me. For me now, I’m just excited to play. There’s been a lot of noise off the pitch. I just want to get down and play.”
The strange thing for Eze was that he was only used as a 70th-minute substitute in Arsenal’s next match at Liverpool; he was unable to get anything going. And the same was true of his performance from the start in England’s 2-0 win against Andorra at Villa Park on Saturday.
With Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden unavailable because of injury, it was an opportunity for Eze in a central attacking midfield role; the brief, in his words, to play “as high and as close to the last line as possible.” Tuchel started him ahead of Morgan Rogers and Morgan Gibbs-White; the options in the department are extensive.
Eze sent an early half-chance straight at the goalkeeper and another one was cleared from in front of the line by a defender. In the second half, when teed up by Noni Madueke, it was noticeable that he wanted to take a touch, which slowed him up, rather than shoot first-time. Again, it was too close to the goalkeeper. Moments later, he blazed over the crossbar from a Marcus Rashford cut-back. An offside flag from the buildup spared his blushes.
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Tuchel is not a guy to pull his punches and he noted that Eze “did not have his best day”, adding: “He trained so well in the decision-making but he struggled a little bit.” Will the manager stick with him against Serbia? What is clear is that Eze will remain unflappable, moving on quickly from Andorra, never getting too far ahead of himself.
The summer has given Eze a boost and how he has the tales to tell, even if some must remain for private audiences, such as one about the phone call he made to the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, after Tottenham had agreed a deal for him. “Nope, I can’t tell you about that,” Eze says, with a smile.
There was the street art mural of him that appeared outside the Emirates Stadium and which was promptly defaced by a Spurs fan with white paint. The signing interview with Ian Wright. The welcome video message from Thierry Henry.
“It is special,” Eze says. “It’s not everyone that gets to experience these types of moments but I try to enjoy it and take it in my stride because there’s always something that is coming – another opportunity and challenge.”
