Eberechi Eze on Arsenal’s Title Triumph, His Unshakeable Belief, and Learning Under Mikel Arteta: Men in Blazers 08/19/26

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network, Suboptimal Radio. Goals to win again. That's it. That's the mentality. And as I said, once you've done it before and you've achieved it, not to overthink, not to get complacent, not to rest on what's already happened, but to have the drive. And I think that's what helps when you have players of this caliber and you bring in more players and you increase the level of the team and the staff and everyone around. what you do is you create more energy in order to achieve what you want to achieve so yeah massively confident of what this season can bring and what we can do

0:40it's a joy to welcome back the man for whom it was written it's a barit jesse thank you very much man can i just tell you this eberichi as a premier league champion how does that sound yeah special man special grateful to be in the position to have experienced And yeah, looking for more again this year. You know the moment when I knew Arsenal were going to win the title? You'd lost to Manchester City. You'd lost in the FA Cup to Southampton. And you were in a press conference, I think it was Champions League. It was like a long question about everyone wants Arsenal to lose. And you just like paused after the question.

1:17You took a deep breath. You milked it from it. There was some tongue out. You did a bit of wide eyes. And you said, so cool in response. You said, I don't care if I'm honest. I'm not too interested in what people think and how they feel about us winning. And then you said, when we do win. And he said it with a sheer confidence, Ebs. Take us there. What was that like? Because it was a super powerful moment, all kinds of awesome. I think it's just the way I'm wise and the way I think. And I believe and I have faith in my God and the gift that I've been given and this position that this team was in.

1:55I had a feeling and I knew that as long as we do what we do, we're going to win. And yeah, that's something that's always been in me, I think. When we do win. I watched that. I was like, what gave you that sheer, utter belief? Because you said it. To me, I felt like it was almost a quasi-religious faith you had in this team, your teammates. Yeah, I would say so. I think it's, again, it all stems from my faith and my belief. And I trust that, yeah, things don't happen by accident. and the experiences that you go through are the shaping and building of you. So after everything that we had experienced, for me, it was like, OK, now this sounds like the ending of the story.

2:36It ends the way that we want it to go. And yeah, thank God it did. I want to talk to you about another moment from that, right after the 2-1 loss against Manchester City, which ultimately proved to be complete misdirection. But we didn't know that in the moment. And at the final whistle, the football world went mad, decided Arsenal were in another world of darkness. The final whistle, Declan Rice, now quite iconically, sank to his knees, shook his head and said, it's not done yet. It's not done. And a lot of pundits laughed, but I'm not interested in that. What I'm really interested in is the impact of Declan's action on the rest of the Arsenal squad.

3:15Did you all draw strength from that? Yeah, I would say so massively. I think having him speak like that and then go into the changing room and seeing the energy that was in the change room at that time. It was, again, a similar type of thing, like a confidence of we're going to do it. This doesn't define how the season goes. It was maybe what we needed in that moment because the performance was what we expected and what we wanted to put out. The result wasn't, but being able to trust in that and what we were doing. Yeah, I think Dex's perspective and his mentality definitely rubbed off on a lot of players and I think it inspired us to keep going.

3:55I also want to talk about the West Ham game, the VAR moment. Those immortal words after review. West Ham's number 19 commits a foul. Take us to your experience of that. What do you remember? What was happening in your mind and in your chest? Yeah, that was not easy. It was an easy moment. I think sitting there and not being able to influence or to affect a decision, I think that's probably the hardest thing. So there was a lot of just waiting around and thinking, wow, is this really going to be how it goes? But then I've always, as I said, I've got that faith and that belief that maybe it's just how I think I try to be as optimistic as I can be.

4:39And there was a belief that, no, it's going to be all right. It's going to be all right, whatever way it goes. And as I said, you can't just believe that when it's going well, you've got to have that mentality regardless. So that's where I was at. The day the title was won, was one of supreme collective effervescence. Thousands of Arsenal fans communed upon the stadium. The entire team partied in their own way through the night. What's your most instant memory of that evening? The one that comes to mind fastest is as we're leaving the training ground, seeing all the fans on the street already after the City game, seeing the flares and just more so than winning the trophy because that's special for the players and the team and everyone involved.

5:29But for the community, you can see what you've managed to do and how you've managed to affect people and the joy that you've brought to a whole area and or type of people. I feel like it's massive. So definitely like, definitely seeing what you've done to a community was the biggest. There's something very powerful about that night. 5am, I think it was you, Declan Rice, Durian Timber, Bakaio. You came back to the stadium. Yeah. It was like watching actors jump to the screen of a movie to be with the fans. What was it? This guy's got 2D lyrics. I mean, it's beautiful, man. You guys felt compelled to share in their experience as well as your own.

6:11What was it that you were driven by? We had seen what it was like at the stadium the day that we went out. And it just looked insane. There were so many people there. And we knew that maybe if we were to go there, it might be a bit tough. We might not be able to get around or whatever. So going to the stadium was always an idea from the start of the night. I think Dex started to push it a bit more as the night went on. And it sort of made sense because it was a bit late. and we assume that people might not be there. So, yeah, just going there and almost reflecting on the whole season, how everything had gone.

6:49It was, yeah, a powerful moment, I think. By the way, 22 years ended of dreaming. The reality kicked in. I found it very moving watching the trophy celebration. Hundreds of thousands in the north of London coming together with the team. But more than that, millions across the world. Nairobi, Jakarta, Kampala, New York. It felt like a profound global connection, almost like a purge of emotion, a relief, a joy. You were at the centre of it. How do you understand the power of this Arsenal story? Because it's so much more than football. What are people connecting to? A culture, a way of thinking, a family.

7:29And it's special when you're in it and when you have that feeling. I think it's, yeah, to use words to describe it, it's probably not the right thing, but when you're in, you know, and to be able to live that hour and experience and to help bring that to so many people, I think, yeah, massively blessed all over the world. It's not just in North London, it's you can see it was all over the place. There was a float in the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. New Orleans is called the Big Easy. They had a float called the Big Eze with your head on it. Serious. Serious. I've got a t-shirt of it. Someone send it to me.

8:04Show me that off, please. I'll look at it, I'll show you, I'll cut it on my phone. That was the moment when I realised just how you are touching people in their own profound moments, in their own lives, in a way that is so much more than football. It's a blessing to be living this out and to be enjoying it. And yeah, man, I can't, words don't do it justice. Every squad, every champion has to stay fresh. Bruno Gimoresh, big new arrival, longer tormentor of midfields across the Premier League. He's a man who can destroy, he's a man who can create. You play against him often, so you know that. What's it like to have that force suddenly playing alongside you?

8:42I think it's so special to have a player like that. The way he thinks, the way he operates, you know he's a player that's going to give everything and with insane quality as well. So I think for a player like me, it's a dream to have him behind me. Looking back on the season you've had, I think 10 goals, half of which opened the scoring, tormenting the Spurs winning the title you've said you now understand football on a much deeper level after working with Mikel Arteta can you put into words what you've learnt? Yeah I don't know if I can put into words there's been a lot of coaching a lot of teaching over the last season but I'll just say that I've grown in my understanding of what's important and I think it's all helped me to become a more well-rounded footballer and person as well because you have to go through things and you have to adjust and to adapt.

9:33I feel like that's helped me massively, not just on the pitch, but as a person as well.

9:41Now you've got that season under your belt, what's your personal goal for the season ahead ever at Chief? I look at last season and I say I want to be better than that in every area possible. If goals, assists, I think it's normal. You always want to score more goals and get more assists and to play better, to have more impact on games. I feel like naturally as an attacker, that's a way of thinking. But yeah, I just want to enjoy. I want to continue to enjoy my football. I want to continue to enjoy playing at this level, winning games, impacting games and being the best version of myself. In the run of seasons, second place, second place, the pundits all said this circular thinking.

10:16You can't win a title until you know how to win a title, which kind of makes no sense. You have now won a title. Can you describe internally in that locker room what feels different? It's definitely a different perspective and a different feeling. I think it's a silent confidence in what you've done. That's behind you and you know, OK, cool, I've achieved it, I've done it before and it's just more of the same and slight tweaks here, ways to improve. But there's not the fear of or the anxiety of, oh, are we ever going to do it? It's already been done. So now it's just building, building on what we've already done, what we've already achieved.

10:53And that's given us definitely more confidence and more belief in what we have, what we've got here. No Arsenal team in the modern period has defended a title. Walking around here today, people are using the D word quite openly. I don't even want to say it. I don't want to put it out there. What is the goal? What is the hope? And what gives you most confidence that you can make that come true? Yeah, goal is to win again. That's it, that's the mentality. And as I said, once you've done it before and you've achieved it, not to overthink, not to get complacent, not to rest on what has already happened, but to have the drive.

11:30And I think that's what helps when you have players of this caliber and you bring in more players and you increase the level of the team and the staff and everyone around. What you do is you create more energy in order to achieve what you want to achieve. So yeah, massively confident. of what this season can bring and what we can do. You're now Eberichi as a Premier League champion, but long before, long before you scored in the World Cup, before you chose Arsenal over Tottenham, before you'd won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace, probably even a blip on the England radar. Back in 2015, I think you were around 16 years of age.

12:06Youth team at Millwall, maybe. You've been cut by Arsenal. You've been cut by Fulham. Reading, you tweeted, I swear I'm going to make it. and when I do they're going to show this tweet lol I put lol at the end that's hilarious I know that's my mum does that my mum does that my mum and I take me to that moment where were you when you tweeted that and what was your mindset when you wrote it man because you suffered if I'm honest I was probably just similar similar to what I am now I guess just like crazily optimistic and confident beyond maybe what's sensible and what looks right. I feel like I've always had that way of thinking.

12:49It must have been... Normally what would happen, that would have probably happened after a bad game or if I was at home watching football and I was like, why am I playing here? Or whatever. Maybe one of those moments, as you do as a young kid. But yeah, I feel like that's where it stems from. Just a way of thinking, a way of belief that I've had from young. If you could go back in time to that 16-year-old about to get cut by Millwall, I think, tweeting that out. What would you tell him? And what would that kid think of you now? I would say you're right, but remain humble. That would be it. So what you believe and what you think is correct and don't allow anyone to doubt that or to make you not believe it.

13:33But even with that belief, remain humble and trust that God's going to do it for you. I think that's the best advice I can give that 16 year old or 17 year old. Yeah, I think it's just a fulfillment of the dreams that I had. It's like, again, confirmation, you're right. You're right. Keep believing and keep trusting God and keep doing what you're doing because everything you could ever want will come and it's going to happen exactly how you want it to happen. and yeah not to be afraid you'd say my tweet made that happen can't say much if he'd say that can't be that arrogant that's bad to you to your family to the joy you bring man thank you very much appreciate you man