‘Needs to wake up’ – Arsenal fans rage at star man who is ‘not living up to expectations’
Arsenal fans have slammed one of their key players after he missed a golden opportunity to score and struggled to make an impact in their 2-0 win against West Ham.
Arsenal started brightly against the Hammers as they aimed to stretch their unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions, but one star struggled in the first-half and never looked up to speed throughout.
Mikel Arteta saw fit to make this the first game of the campaign in which he named a midfield three of Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard from the start, but the latter had to go off injured in the first-half as his issues reared their head once again.
The Gunners took the the lead in the first-half as Rice notched against his former club, while Bukayo Saka doubled their lead from the spot late on as it ended 2-0, but one Arsenal player in particular did not impress and was called out by their supporters for a certain chance that he simply had to score.
Arsenal fans fume at Eberechi Eze after horror open-goal miss in first-half vs West Ham
Arsenal hijacked Tottenham’s move for Eze in August as he arrived in a deal worth £67.5million, but he has experienced a slow start to life in North London, which continued against the Irons.
Eze missed a golden chance to open to scoring for his side in the 13th minute on Saturday (4 October), as a goalmouth scramble between Viktor Gyokeres and some defenders saw the ball pop out to him before he blazed it over the crossbar from six yards out with the goal gaping.
Many Arsenal fans took to X to voice their concerns at his miss and overall performance, with one saying: “I hate to say this, Eze is not living up to expectation,” while another moaned: “Absolute sitter wasted, Eze really needs to wake up.”
Another insisted that this was not his first poor attempt at scoring, saying: “Eze misses way too many of those chances from the exact same spot,” while one was exasperated at his chance and said: “How did Eze miss that? That is just unbelievable. Areola was on the ground, and the goal was basically clear for him.”
One fan could not believe it as they asked: “Eze that didn’t actually happen right?,” while another said: “Such a poor poor miss from Eze. Hope we don’t come to rue that missed chance.”
Eze’s arrival could cause Arsenal some financial issues
Eze has failed to mirror his impressive form at Crystal Palace in his time at Arsenal up to now, and the club may well regret his capture soon from an off-field point of view, as well as on-field.
The Times recently reported that former sporting director and new Gunners CEO Richard Garlick was unsure if the club should go ahead with the Eze transfer in the summer, due to the fee becoming a potential issue with UEFA’s squad cost rules in the future.
Football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley told Football Insider on Thursday (2 October) that Garlick was right to be concerned, as Arsenal could soon be fined by UEFA with the governing body known to have the club on their radar.
Whether they are actually reprimanded remains to be seen, but Arsenal will need Eze to make improvements on the pitch as soon as possible to prove that they did not make a mistake in signing him from both a financial and performance-based standpoint.