Mikel Arteta has explained why he substituted Eberechi Eze at half-time against Nottingham Forest, to be replaced by eventual match-winner Noni Madueke.
Eberechi Eze had one of his best moments of the season last Tuesday, scoring his first goal of the campaign against Lille OSC and having plenty of positive moments down Arsenal’s left.
But after earning a spot in the starting lineup against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, Eze was substituted just 45 minutes later at half-time.
Speaking after the game, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta confirmed why he’d decided to take the 28-year-old off, whilst also making sure to highlight how well the player had done a few days earlier.
“I wanted something else, and we needed a different sort of profile on the left-hand side,” Arteta said.
“I’m here to make decisions. A few days ago, he played and scored a goal, and could have had two or three against Lille. He had some really good moments.
“Today was different because what the game required was different. We felt we had to change it and that’s what happened.”
Noni Madueke was the player to come on for Eze after the break, and he definitely made his case for further opportunities in the position.
The winger went around the outside and got crosses in on multiple occasions, and he was rather unfortunate the players trying to get on the end of them didn’t manage to connect. He also cut inside and shot a couple of times, with one of those shots becoming Arsenal’s winning goal.
Purely by the numbers, it’s not hard to see why Arteta thought he needed to make the change. Eze took zero shots and made zero crosses in the first half, whilst Madueke took two shots (scoring one) and made six crosses in the second.
Arsenal needed someone to come on and make things happen, and Madueke did exactly that.
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