From most feared team in Africa to serial bunglers. how Nigeria’s Super Eagles are into descending AFCON whipping boys
He is not the only player with mixed heritage they have missed out on. Eze’s Arsenal team-mates Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke have Nigerian roots, too. Michael Olise of Bayern Munich, who plays for France but was also eligible for Algeria and England, was on the standby list for Nigeria’s AFCON qualifying-phase games in March 2021. Olise was only 19 and playing for Reading in the Championship at the time.
Mirror images or complementarity? Fans wonder if Man City and Arsenal managers are football’s Siamese twins
Last season, Arteta was promoting the idea of two squads to cope with the packed calendar, while Guardiola was an outlier, complaining about having a bloated squad. Arsenal have improved their depth drastically to reach a head count of 25, but it is Guardiola who has moved position by starting the season carrying 26 senior players for the first time.
A reset Arsenal hands Nottingham Forest a hiding in a match ‘Nigerian’ boys Eze and Madueke’s flair wowed opposition
This has not been the first time the first international break in the season has been necessary for Arteta to rejig things. The biggest example was in the 2021-22 season, when Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel and Kieran Tierney became his new-look back five to help recover from a poor start to the season.
‘Let it all work out’: Return of Eze Eberechi to Arsenal inspires new sense belonging and the boys are rocking
A fair amount of consideration appears to have gone into Arsenal’s new signing announcements throughout the summer. Most have been themed around what that particular player would bring to the club. For example, part of the focus of Martin Zubimendi’s announcement video was control and rhythm, to demonstrate the qualities he would bring to Arsenal’s midfield.
