Scoring Success All That's Missing for 'Free' Eze as He Faces Old Team Palace

Always thankful, man, that’s how I experience – that will be me for life,” reflected Eberechi Eze on his period at Crystal Palace during an interview with another footballer Ian Wright. Wright, another south Londoner who made the move at the same age – 27 – back in 1991, appeared the perfect person to discuss what Eze described as “the fulfillment of a prayer we started 20 years ago as a family.”

But for a small group of Palace supporters with long memories, it revived bitter feelings about an event that occurred at Arsenal's old ground in May 1993.

Wright had not held back after scoring Arsenal’s winner on his first appearance against Steve Coppell’s side at Selhurst Park a few months before – “I expressed joy because Palace fans were being unpleasant,” he later explained – and further damaged the connection by kissing the badge when he gave his team the lead in a match his old side desperately needed to win to avoid relegation. “After I scored I remember Nigel Martyn remarking: ‘Wrighty, what are you doing? You’re going to send us down,’” he remembered.

In 2006, a 42-year-old and long-retired Wright, who had recently been voted as Palace’s player of the century, helped to bury the hatchet with those who bore a grudge by kissing the Palace badge after netting in a benefit game organized for his former teammate Geoff Thomas. “We had our problems for a while but I think we’ve resolved them now,” he said, even if some continue to differ.

For Eze, who on Sunday faces Palace for the first time since his multi-million pound transfer, there are no such problems. As the player who scored the goal that won Palace’s first major trophy in the Wembley showpiece in May, he will always have a special place in the club’s legacy. That was part of an extraordinary run Wright would have been proud of, Eze netting six goals in his final eight Premier League games and three in the FA Cup after netting his first England goal against Latvia in March.

Such sparkling form played a key role in persuading Arsenal to outbid Tottenham for the signature of the player they turned down as a teenager, although Eze has yet to score for them in the league despite going into this weekend having taken the joint-most shots (18, equal with Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White) without scoring. That includes an appearance for Palace against Chelsea on the opening day when his free-kick was contentiously disallowed after Marc Guéhi was adjudged to have been less than one metre from the wall as the shot was taken.

A solitary strike against Port Vale in the Carabao Cup is a unsatisfactory return from 10 appearances for Arsenal, including seven starts. It is perhaps partially explained by the fact that Eze has mostly been used in a No 10 role that he last occupied at Queens Park Rangers rather than in a withdrawn role on the left of the attack, where he was utilized by Oliver Glasner at Palace and which often meant he was able to get on the end of Daniel Muñoz’s crosses, as in the final against Manchester City at Wembley.

“As long as I’m on the pitch and I’m given the chance to play and show my skills in that setting then it doesn’t matter where I play,” Eze said in his interview with Wright. “Of course [the manager] has ideas and things he wants. But for me, I’m free, man.”

Mikel Arteta’s reaction to criticism that he played with the handbrake on in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with City last month, when Eze came off the bench to set up Gabriel Martinelli’s leveler, has been to entrust Eze with filling in for the injured captain, Martin Ødegaard, as the creative hub. It has aligned with six straight victories. Another Eze goal against Latvia this month and his impressive performance against Atlético Madrid in midweek have offered promising signs that the goals will soon start to flow for him at Arsenal.

But if his Palace statistics are anything to go by, that is more probable to happen in the new year. Eze has scored nine goals in 68 Premier League games before 31 December at a ratio of 0.13 compared with 25 in 85 (0.34) after. At the start of last season, he scored against Chelsea in August after having another free-kick disallowed contentiously in the opening game against Brentford and had to wait until 29 December for his second.

While Guéhi was blocked his move to Liverpool at the last minute this summer, Glasner is understood not to have objected to Eze’s exit because he felt it gave Palace an chance to reinvest the club record fee. Palace have the highest xG of any Premier League club, Yéremy Pino having slotted straight into Eze’s role since arriving from Villarreal, although the Spain international has yet to score or register an assist in the league despite some encouraging performances. Christantus Uche, who arrived on transfer deadline on an initial loan from the Spanish side Getafe and must start 10 matches for Palace to trigger a £17m permanent move, was left out of the squad to face Bournemouth after arriving late back from international duty with Nigeria last week and has played only 57 minutes.

A swift reunion with players with whom Eze made a historic achievement for Palace in May will make Sunday an poignant occasion for him. He told Wright, who had to wait until he was 34 to win the title in his final season at Arsenal, that the FA Cup victory had given him the appetite for trophies.

“I’ve seen what you can do, not just for your teammates or the staff,” he said. “But I can see what you can do to people when you win and you bring that kind of joy to a place. That’s my aim.”

Just don’t expect him to express joy if he scores against Palace.