Arsenal were bang on picking Eberechi Eze over Morgan Rogers — here’s why
Arsenal were blocked from signing Morgan Rogers by Aston Villa and instead elected to purchase Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace, a move that is looking better by the week.
Rogers had been linked to Arsenal throughout the summer transfer window as Mikel Arteta sought to add another attacking midfielder to his squad.
But Football Insider learned in September that Villa blocked all enquires for Rogers, and the Gunners were forced to turn their attention elsewhere.
Tottenham looked to be favourites to sign Eze from Palace, but Arsenal jumped the queue to bring the mercurial midfielder to the red side of north London, and to the team he supported as a child.
Eze has had to bide his time to break into Arsenal’s starting XI, but repeated injury problems for Martin Odegaard have seen him become an important figure in recent weeks, while Rogers has failed to impress for Villa this term.
Morgan Rogers vs Eberechi Eze
Eze has played fewer minutes than Rogers this season, owing to the fact that he switched clubs when the season had already started, and has now had to fight for his place in a squad full of stars. For that reason using per 90 minute figures achieves a fairer comparison.
What becomes immediately obvious is that Eze outperforms Rogers for a number of important categories.
Rogers has a combined expected goal involvements figure of 0.16 per 90 minutes, far below Eze’s return of 0.49 expected goals or assists per 90.
Eze has made 3.6 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, which ranks 23rd in the division, while Rogers’ figure of 1.9 per 90 puts him all the way down in 116th.
The Villa man has completed just 29.2 per cent of his take-on attempts this term, seven of 24 to be exact, placing him 141st in the top-flight for his success rate.
Eze on the other hand has completed 57.1 per cent of his take-on attempts.
| 2025-26 (Per 90) | Rogers | Eze |
| Goals | 0 | 0 |
| Assists | 2 | 2 |
| Expected Goals | 0.07 | 0.30 |
| Expected Assists | 0.09 | 0.19 |
| Shots | 1 | 3.9 |
| Shot-Creating Actions | 1.9 | 3.6 |
| Passes Completed | 19.4 | 27.5 |
| Progressive Passes | 3.2 | 4.3 |
| Passing Accuracy | 71.7% | 80.7% |
| Successful Take-Ons | 1 | 1.8 |
| Take-On Success | 29.2% | 57.1% |
| Progressive Carries | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| Miscontrols | 3.8 | 1.4 |
While Eze is careful in possession, miscontroling the ball 1.4 times per 90 minutes, Rogers more than doubles this rate, with 3.8 miscontrols per 90.
Rogers plays an aggressive and high-octane brand of football, and Villa manager Unai Emery clearly endorses this, but it makes for less than impressive viewing on a spreadsheet.
What next for Rogers?
Villa started the season incredibly poorly, failing to win any of their first six games in all competitions, and this hasn’t helped Rogers at all.
He is not the only Villa player to struggle for form this season, with Ollie Watkins also failing to match his performances from 2024-25.
But Villa have now won four consecutive games in all competitions, and they appear to be back on track, with Rogers also assisting in each of his last two league matches, suggesting he could be returning to form too.
Although he is likely to receive interest once again from top Premier League clubs, it may be that Rogers decides to extend his contract with Villa.