Eberechi Eze’s search for consistent form at Arsenal has intensified after the forward was substituted at half-time during the Gunners’ 1-0 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest on 18 October 2026, having completed just nine passes and 22 touches, according to BBC Sport.
It was Eze’s first Premier League start of the season. The result has renewed questions about whether the 28-year-old can recapture the performances that first brought him to the club.
A limited route into the side
Eze joined Arsenal having made his name at Crystal Palace, where he scored some memorable goals, including a decisive goal in the 2025 FA Cup final against Manchester City. But finding a settled role at a club of Arsenal’s depth has proved difficult.
The Gunners made efforts to sign a world-class attacker in the summer transfer window, with reported interest in Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr and Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez. Neither move materialised. Instead, Arsenal brought in Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge, and the Greek international became Mikel Arteta’s first-choice wide option until a hamstring injury, picked up on international duty, ruled him out.
Tzolis’s absence gave Eze an opening. He scored in a Champions League start on the left wing against Lille, but could not build on that against Forest. With captain Martin Odegaard the established number 10, Eze’s path into the team runs through the left flank, a position former Arsenal and England defender Matt Upson does not believe suits him.
‘He’s now filling in a bit on the left-hand side, which I don’t think particularly suits him, but he’s had to,’ Upson said. ‘He doesn’t play like a wide player for me and I think just knowing your role when you’re at a club like Arsenal is so important.’
England manager Thomas Tuchel also hinted at the situation during the last international break, saying Eze was ‘coming back to his true shape and form’ in training.
What the numbers show
Eze has not been short of game time. The Gunners played 63 matches last season and he started 36 of them, a figure of 57%. Since his Arsenal debut in August 2025 he has started 56% of games across all competitions, 40 out of 72. His 11 goals in 61 appearances have arrived in clusters, scored across just eight matches.
Those goals have included some high-profile moments: five against Tottenham Hotspur across two Premier League fixtures, with a hat-trick in the home game, as well as winners against Newcastle and Crystal Palace as Arsenal won the title. StatsMuse records seven Premier League goals and two assists across 33 league appearances in 2025-26.
The BBC report notes that, compared with the previous campaign, Eze’s per-90 figures this season are up across several measures: his assist rate stands at 0.25, his combined goals-and-assists rate at 0.50, shots on target at 0.74, completed dribbles at 1.98, and touches inside the opposition box at 5.95, though the sample size remains small.
An August 2025 analysis by Total Football Analysis noted that Eze had amassed 154 ball recoveries across the season, with more than half (54.5%) in the opposition half, which the outlet described as ‘a clear indicator of his pressing value’. The same report recorded 83 interceptions and a 57.2% win rate across 138 defensive duels.
Upson believes Eze must adapt his approach to cement a place. ‘It’s almost a process for him if he wants to kind of grow into starting more matches for Arsenal,’ he said. ‘I think figuring that out is really important and having that level of intensity, which I think has been an adjustment for him from where he’s come from, into a big club, with a manager that they don’t come more intense than really.’
Arteta, for his part, said expectations at the club are high across the board. ‘We have some really good players and the expectations are so big for all of them,’ the Arsenal manager said. ‘And we want more from everybody. That is the mindset.’
Arsenal face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on 22 October 2026 (20:00 BST).
