Eberechi Eze

Yeah, I did too.

And I thought when he came on last night in the, in the Champions League, I thought he was way better than Eze.

He, he had a shot.

Mm.

He could play in a more advanced role.

But I would say it's more Eze.

And Eze's a weird one.

He seems to, like, get a run of games, then you never see him again.

Or Havertz could play in Ødegaard's spot.

... you lose a couple.

But first of all, it gives you an opportunity to play Eze more on the left, which again, against Aston Villa the second half he was excellent, perfect.

Worked really well.

Again, that will work in certain games, won't work in others.

They did have to bring Saliba on to try and get some threat down the left-hand side.

That slightly bothers me that Eze just won't go out there.

Mm.

Just s- maybe sometimes, Ebbs, just get out to the left touch line and create a space out there.

Mm

... on his right foot, and so that, 'cause they've got that in their mind.

But with Eze, the fullback just f- he's now, he's not going outside.

I mean, I know he's not.

Um, you know, we used to...

There was obviously, uh, Eze in there at the time.

So they, they were...

Yeah.

This is really easy and basic, and they...

I, I'm probably over-egging it a bit too much, but...

In fact, a lot too much, but, you know, Gibbs-White is Eze, McAtee's Wharton, Murillo is, uh, Marc Guéhi, et cetera, et cetera.

Daniel Munoz is Daniel Munoz now as well, so yeah, he is trying to replicate it.

I think there's a few nuances here.

And I'll use an example of two other players as well in Kapie and Eze.

Those three players came into the game with very, very few minutes in their legs.

Eze looked very rusty.

I didn't think he had the best game.

It was also reportedly very humid in Naples.

But then looking at Kapier, by contrast, I thought he was a bit clunky on the ball at times, a bit rusty from not playing.

And he cramped up after 80 minutes, but kept fighting and battling.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think we all wanted rotation, expect the rotation.

I think the obvious ones were going to be Hinkapie and Eze and most probably Giocares.

You know, but there's also, you know, Arteta, it's the Champions League.

It's the first game of the Champions League.

But I think you still have to have an element of respect for that, the respect for the tournament and going.

You're right, it is important minutes for these players.

And they're playing for, you know, especially someone like Eze.

You know, he's got someone younger than him, Zolis, coming in and he seems to have sort of, he seems to be the number one.

But I believe we only made the one substitution.

I think we brought Mosquera on late in that game for Eze, who was playing in midfield.

I think Mikel Moreno was up forward because Jokeres... was also injured.

And there was just that nervous moment right at the end where I think Raya was calling, but Gabriel had it covered.

Zubimendi Rice, that was lovely.

We had Saka, and then Eze played in the middle.

Trossard on the left, and we were playing Mourinho up front.

So it was a bit of a sort of patchwork front line.

And again, Havertz got a rest in the week, so he can definitely start.

So the only one I'm sort of thinking is slightly risky in the red zone is Erdogan.

But with his form, if we play well enough, if we can get a good, hopefully, fingers crossed, if we get a two-goal lead, if we can get a two-goal lead with 30 minutes to go, in come Saka, in come Jock, in come Eze, in comes Myles, depending on the game states of these types of players, in comes Mourinho, depending on these game states.

So there we go.