Arsenal’s legendary former striker Thierry Henry heavily hinted at the increasing possibility that the club’s current captain Martin Ødegaard would have to play second fiddle to Eberechi Eze after the playmaker’s historic hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Eze became just the fourth player in the 104-year history of the north London derby to rack up a treble in this fixture, and the first in almost half a century. Henry was famously unbeaten across his 11 appearances against Spurs, yet never scored more than once in a single derby.
Ødegaard missed the chance to extend his own tally in this fixture through injury, watching on as Eze helped Arsenal romp to a 4–1 victory over their fiercest rivals at a jubilant Emirates Stadium.
In the immediate aftermath of that thumping triumph, Henry couldn’t help but promote Eze above Arsenal’s skipper in Mikel Arteta’s pecking order.
“By the way, if I was Martin Ødegaard…” he began in his role as a Sky Sports pundit before trailing off. “I said it, this guy [Eze] is a [No.] 10 for me, however you want to look at it. He’s not a winger, he’s a 10. He needs to be in the middle of the park and he showed it tonight.
“That’s what you want: healthy competition.”
Sunday’s one-sided win was partly a consequence of their insipid visitors—Tottenham delivered the single lowest xG (0.07) of any Premier League team so far this season—and Arsenal’s strength in depth.
Even after three unexpected returnees, Arteta was still without a trio of injured strikers and his club captain. “We have a great squad,” Henry concurred. “I said it before the game, let’s embrace it. A lot of people were talking before the game about who was missing, let’s talk about what the team did today. And if you want to win the league, this is how you win the league.”
The former frontman suggested that the lack of a recognised striker, with Mikel Merino filling in for Viktor Gyökeres through the middle, may have actually helped Eze. “We need a [No.] 9, that’s what everyone was saying,” Henry shrugged. “And I would say also that you play without a 9 and you score four goals in open play and your [No.] 10 suddenly comes into the picture because your 9 drops, so you can get the 9 dropping for the 10 to get in.”
