Mikel Arteta explained the decision to withdraw Eberechi Eze at half time of Thursday\u2019s 1\u20131 draw with Brentford after a subdued first 45 minutes at the Gtech Community Stadium. The \u00a367.5 million ($91.9 million) signing was tasked with being Arsenal\u2019s chief source of creativity but touched the ball just 17 times, completed nine passes from 11 attempted, made no chances and had no shots. His combined xG and xA for one half stood at 0.02.<\/p>\n
Arteta did not launch a broad critique but was unequivocal about the tactical need to alter the profile on the pitch. \u201cWith the way [Brentford] were pressing, we needed another kind of profile to generate many more problems for them around those areas. [Martin \u00d8degaard] came on really well and the team had another gear and more threat to arrive in the areas we wanted to. That\u2019s the decision.\u201d \u00d8degaard had begun the game on the bench after recent fitness issues and his introduction altered Arsenal\u2019s attacking approach.<\/p>\n
Eze\u2019s early season highlight was a hat-trick in the North London Derby in late November, but he has not scored or assisted for Arsenal in any competition since three days after that game. He spent a spell out of the side in December into January, sitting on the bench for four consecutive Premier League matches, all wins, and Thursday marked his first league start in two months.<\/p>\n
Season averages per 90, via Fotmob and accurate as of Feb. 13, 2026, include 0.32 goals, 0.20 xG, 0.16 assists and 0.14 xA, with 0.24 big chances created, 3.42 touches in the opposition box and 1.59 successful dribbles.<\/p>\n
Arteta added context on adaptation and the specific challenges posed by Brentford\u2019s physical approach. \u201cI think he had moments and it\u2019s not easy when you move to a new club, it\u2019s always like this,\u201d Arteta offered. \u201cWhen you play against a team like [Brentford], the ball is not on the floor a lot and you have to be constantly breaking the play. To do that, especially for attacking and creative players, is more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Kai Havertz sidelined for at least the next three fixtures and Mikel Merino out for most or all of the rest of the season, Arsenal\u2019s schedule in four competitions will offer Eze further chances to respond on the pitch. Based on current form, his place in England\u2019s 2026 World Cup plans feels at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta withdrew Eberechi Eze at half-time after 17 touches; Arsenal require more creative outputs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,192,728],"tags":[1081,1162,1304],"class_list":["post-6858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-arsenal","category-brentford","tag-adaptation","tag-analytics","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}