Eberechi Eze did not have the best game against Athletic Bilbao. He came off at the 71st minute mark, and his replacement Gabriel Martinelli, scored within just a minute of coming on.
It really didn't go to plan for Eberechi Eze today, but if we're being completely frank, it's through no fault of his own. Yet again, he was used in the wrong position, and Eze struggled to come up with the goods in an unfamiliar territory.
He has gone from Crystal Palace, where he had complete freedom to operate wherever he wanted, to Arsenal, where Mikel Arteta insists he plays on the left.
In truth, [Eze hasn't been helped out by Noni Madueke's great form](https://paininthearsenal.com/noni-madueke-gives-arsenal-something-bukayo-saka-lost). The former Chelsea man has made the right-hand side his own. It also doesn't help that Arsenal don't tend to operate with a player just behind the center forward, at least not in recent years.
But something needs to change for Eberechi Eze, and it starts by giving him a shot in a position of his choosing, not Arteta's. At the moment, Arteta is playing a risky game by playing Eze out of position, which he should have learned from doing the same with Kai Havertz in the early stages.
It took 36 seconds for Gabriel Martinelli to make Eberechi Eze redundant
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And now, Gabriel Martinelli has thrown an entirely new spanner into the works. If you were to guess which player would score Arsenal's first Champions League goal of the season, nobody would have said Gabriel Martinelli. If they did, then we'd love to know their lottery number predictions too.
Oh, for good measure, Leandro Trossard scored the settler for Arsenal. He's another player who could challenge Eberechi Eze for his position.
However, this is proof that a lackluster player in his natural position is a better option than a top-quality player out of position. Arsenal fans, weirdly, would rather see Martinelli out on the left than Eze.
Looking ahead to the weekend against Man City, Mikel Arteta will probably play Eze out on the left. This is likely the reason why Eze was taken off, to preserve fitness for that game.
And, despite everything outlined in this article, starting Eze probably is the right choice. Mikel Arteta shouldn't tinker with a starting lineup that's worked out at the start of this season against opposition like Man City.
But post-City, there needs to be an Eze contingency plan. Arsenal fans want nothing less than to watch him waste his potential [like Kai Havertz did](https://paininthearsenal.com/will-kai-havertz-surgery-force-arsenal-to-re-enter-the-transfer-market). Eze is not a left-winger, and Gabriel Martinelli showed us what a left-winger is in less than half the amount of time Eze had in that position tonight.
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