Despite criticising Arsenal’s general performance at Anfield, Gary Neville does believe Mikel Arteta can be happy with some of his players’ individual performances on the day.
The Gunners were beaten 1-0 by Liverpool, with Dominik Szoboszlai securing the home side all three points with a spectacular free-kick seven minutes from time.
Neville felt Arsenal were too conservative on Merseyside, not committing enough men forward at any moment to try and score a goal.
However, the pundit was impressed with some of the North Londoners’ players, including some of their new signings.
Gary Neville says Eberechi Eze ‘looked sharp’ vs Liverpool
Noni Madueke was impressive for Arsenal, catching the eye in Bukayo Saka’s absence.
The former Chelsea winger was direct and positive when he had the ball, looking to drive past Milos Kerkez at every opportunity, while his off-the-ball movement was excellent.
While Neville acknowledged Madueke’s encouraging display, he also cited the cameo from Eberechi Eze as a cause for optimism for the Gunners.
Eze was introduced in the 70th minute in place of Gabriel Martinelli and showed glimpses of his quality on his Arsenal debut.
Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, the former Manchester United defender said the new £67.5 million signing ‘looked sharp’.
“You know, Madueke, I thought, had a good game today,” he said.
“And I thought that Eze looked sharp when he came on. So there is the talent there to think they can go and do it, but they’ve got to go and do it.”
Ignoring his bizarre claim that Arsenal were obliged to take the game to the reigning Champions who were playing at home, Neville was right to single out Eze’s cameo.
The 27-year-old showed more offensive intent in his 20 minutes on the pitch than Martinelli did in the opening 70.
Eberechi Eze’s statistics vs Liverpool
Eze has been described as ‘incredible’ in the past, and it’s not hard to see why based on his limited outing at Anfield.
The England international was positive on the ball, looking to drive inside and take on makeshift full-back Szoboszlai.
Almost scoring after finding himself in a dangerous position inside the box, Eze also perfectly found Martin Odegaard on the edge of the box with a neat ball late on.
| Eberechi Eze’s Statistics vs Liverpool | |
| Minutes Played | 20 |
| Touches | 13 |
| Accurate Passes | 9/9 (100%) |
| Successful Dribbles | 1/1 (100%) |
| Ground Duels Won | 1/1 (100%) |
Compare this to what Martinelli was able to produce going forward, and there are certainly valid question marks as to why Eze wasn’t introduced earlier.
Completing all nine of his passes and completing a dribble in his 20 minutes on the pitch, it was certainly a positive showing from the Gunners’ new number ten.
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