Eze Reveals Arsenal’s Half-Time Message After Comfortable Win Over Lille

Eberechi Eze scored his first goal of the season as Arsenal beat Lille 3-0 at the Emirates on Tuesday night, and he said the team talk at half-time was all about staying the course.

The England midfielder got the second of the night, with Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka also on the scoresheet, as Arsenal kept their perfect start in the Champions League. It was their ninth win in 10 games in all competitions this term.

Lille held firm for the first hour. Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino both missed good chances before the break, and it was still goalless at the interval. Mikel Arteta did not shake things up. Instead, he stuck with his plan and made a few small adjustments, and it paid off soon after the restart.

Timber broke the deadlock with a neat chip from a Noni Madueke pass. Three minutes later, Eze, who was handed a rare start, doubled the lead with a cool finish after Saka pulled the ball back for him. Saka then added the third in the 71st minute. Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz all came off the bench in the second half, and Arsenal scored their goals in a seven-minute spell once the fresh legs arrived.

Eze said the second-half changes were not dramatic. "I think it was just more of the same," he said. 

"There were slight details that we obviously tweaked and changed to give us a bit more dominance, but it was more of the same. We were doing a lot in the first half as well, and I think the players that came on as well really helped us to push on. That was an important impact."

The 28-year-old was happy with how the team played and with his own return to the scoresheet. 

"It's fun! You know that opportunities are coming all over the place, so you've just got to be ready, be in the right places, be in the right spaces to get on the end of stuff. It's a fun team to play in!" he told the club's official website.

He added: "It was an enjoyable performance from all of us. We dominated the game, and we enjoy winning, so that's the main thing." He also made it clear he wants more minutes. "I always want to play, always want to score, and that's the mentality - I'll keep pushing and keep working."

The result extended Arsenal's winning run in the Champions League league phase to 14 matches. That run goes back to their defeat by Inter Milan in November 2024.

Next up is a league trip to Nottingham Forest this weekend, before Arsenal fly to Germany for a big clash with Bayern Munich next Wednesday. Eze is looking forward to that kind of night. 

"[Playing big clubs like Bayern] is always fun. It's always something you want to be doing, you want to be competing, so for sure, I'll enjoy that when it comes."