Claudius the Eze error leading to goal is a classic example of supporters with incomplete information just making an assertion about a manager.
To be fair, just because Arteta said it wasn't a factor doesn't mean it wasn't. It's not as if Arteta would say "yes, I dropped our £70m signing for months because of one error."
Tam That somewhat correlates to Odegaard’s availability.
An Occam's razor-ish theory of Arteta's use of Eze:
- Eze was preferred to Nwaneri as Ødegaard's alternate while the Norwegian was out.
- When Ødegaard was fit to start (his first 90s were Brentford and Villa away) Arteta tried Eze at LW, aiming to keep both in the XI.
- When that didn't go well, Eze got dropped at LW for Martinelli or Trossard. Arteta persisted with Ødegaard trying to play his favourite back into form.
- We ended up in a limbo during which Ødegaard hadn't returned to his best but Arteta was having trouble dropping his captain.
- Arteta dropped Ødegaard versus Leeds, but with Havertz back from injury he ran another experiment trying to fit his forwards into the line-up instead of dropping Gyökeres.
In Eze's preferred central role it's only Ødegaard or Havertz that has been preferred to him at different times. Not so vicious from the manager. In the meantime Eze has been preferred to Nwaneri all season whenever Ødegaard's not available, and to Martinelli and Trossard on the left then dropped when he did poorly.
Looking at the timeline Eze got a run in the side due to Øde's injury and then didn't do enough to keep starting elsewhere on the pitch when the latter was back. The two players have managed the same GA per 90 this season.
