Arsenal are well and truly back in the Premier League title race.
Mikel Arteta's side have won their last five games in a row and have dramatically improved their goal difference after blowing away West Ham United and Burnley.
While the entire team deserved credit, Martin Odegaard has perhaps stood out the most, with his three assists and one goal suggesting that he could well be back to the form he showed last season.
With how impressive the captain has been of late, Arteta would surely have to have two of him in the team, and as outlandish as that sounds, the Gunners once released a youngster from Hale End at 13 years old who is now similar to the mercurial Norwegian.
Eberechi Eze's journey to Crystal Palace
Yes, you read that right; the Gunners once had a young Eberechi Eze on their books, only he wasn't with the club for very long as he was released at just 13 years old.
The next few years were tough for the Greenwich-born gem as he was released by Fulham, Reading and Millwall before finally finding his footing in West London at Queens Park Rangers.
The dynamic midfielder would make his debut for the Hoops in an FA Cup Third Round tie against Blackburn Rovers in January 2017.
Still, it was not until the 2018/19 campaign that he truly established himself in the first team after spending the first half of the 2017/18 season on loan in League Two with Wycombe Wanderers before coming back to finish the year at Loftus Road.
In the following campaign, Eze would score four goals and provide four assists in 42 appearances for QPR before exploding in 2019/20 and scoring 14 goals and providing eight assists in 46 appearances.
Such a remarkable return from a young player understandably brought with it eyes from the Premier League, and after some negotiations, Crystal Palace signed Eze for £20m.
How Eberechi Eze compares to Martin Odegaard
Now, it's undoubtedly a big shout to compare a very talented midfielder with one who is captaining a team fighting for the league title, but it's one made primarily by the football database FBref.
The comparison is made by grouping positionally similar players in Europe's top five leagues and then ranking them based on how close they are to one another for several key metrics, and in this case, Odegaard is considered to be the seventh most similar player to Eze.
For example, the "silky" Palace gem, as described by former teammate Geoff Cameron, produces 0.55 expected goals and assists per 90 to the Norwegian's 0.48 while also producing 2.95 progressive passes per 90 to his 2.90.
Eze
Odegaard
0.47
0.51
2.95
2.90
0.55
0.48
0.78
0.69
4.50
4.38
This obviously doesn't make them identical players, but there is an undeniable similarity in their underlying statistics, which suggests that they could play similar roles within a team.
So, it would certainly have been beneficial for the Gunners to keep a hold of the talented Englishman as not only has he produced 34 goal involvements in 113 appearances for the Eagles, but he could also act as the perfect backup to their captain.
Oh, and there is also the small fact that the CIES Football Observatory now values him at around €40m, which is about £34m, and that is likely a conservative estimate in today's game.
Arsenal fumbled their own dream homegrown Rice partner for £0
The 21-year-old has been impressing on the continent in recent years.
ByJack Salveson HolmesFeb 19, 2024
Ultimately, football clubs can't predict the future, and maybe Eze, who scored ten Premier League goals last season, did not show enough potential when he was 13, but they may now regret letting him go as it appears as though they fumbled their own homegrown version of their current captain.