Peter Crouch on Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze: ‘Couldn’t get on the ball’

4 hours ago 17

2 min readFeb 13, 2026 11:55 PM IST

Eze Brentford's Dango Ouattara in action between Arsenal's Piero Hincapie, left, and Eberechi Eze during the English Premier League soccer match between Brentford and Arsenal in London, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)

Arsenal ended up drawing 1-1 with Brentford on Thursday, and former Liverpool player Peter Crouch was not too pleased with Eberechi Eze’s performance. Eze was given a start in the line-up but could not make much of an impact in the game. Crouch compared Eze’s game to Martin Odegaard and said he is not as defensively sound.

“Yeah, Eze couldn’t get on the ball or make things work, he couldn’t make things tick. Defensively he’s probably not as good as Martin Odegaard either, he doesn’t get around the pitch quick as much. It’s disappointing for Eze; he’s not played many games and has not managed to make an influence at all.”

“He got a start today, but he just fell off the boil. He couldn’t get on the ball. I felt for him because he couldn’t get on the ball, and he doesn’t give you what Odegaard does in terms of pressing and off the ball. He was a bit of a passenger if I’m being perfectly honest. We called it half an hour in that he was going to come off because for some reason he [Arteta] doesn’t seem to fancy him at the moment.”

Crouch also said there might be pressure on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after the draw against Brentford. “Every year you’re in the job you learn more. The criticism he [Mikel Arteta] gets, he has the best squad in the league, he has a good group of players now, he has been in the job a long time. I don’t think there are top, top teams in the league now.“Man City are not the Man City of old, Liverpool aren’t, Manchester United aren’t what they have been, Chelsea the same. There is a lack of quality in the top areas [of the league].

The bar has been set high in the past years. Now is a real opportunity for Arsenal. If they don’t get over the line, there needs to be more questions answered.”

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