Mikel Arteta's Eberechi Eze comments highlight obvious Florian Wirtz truth

Florian Wirtz is getting better and better for Liverpool and is making a mockery of suggestions that Eberechi Eze is a better player than the Germany international

Mikel Arteta addressed his decision to withdraw Eberechi Eze against Brentford(Image: 2026 Vince Mignott/MB Media)

Not many signings in Premier League history have come with the sort of expectations that were put on Florian Wirtz's shoulders upon his arrival from Bayer Leverkusen last year.

Wirtz joined Liverpool for what, at the time, was a potentially Premier League record fee, and when a player joins a new club for so much money, they are usually not afforded much time to bed in.

Wirtz started slowly – from a goals and assists standpoint, anyway – having to wait until December to score his first goal and register his first assist for the Reds.

The German's influence has grown and grown over the last couple of months, though, and he is now one of the team's most important attacking players.

Contrastingly, Eberechi Eze, who was another big name attacking signing in the Premier League last summer, has struggled to make an impact at Arsenal.

When Eze scored a hat-trick in the North London derby last November – at which point Wirtz was without a top-flight goal contribution to his name – many observers were of the opinion that it was proof that the England international was clearly the better signing of the two.

However, Eze has not scored or assisted a Premier League goal since that win over Spurs, and his start against Brentford on Thursday was his first of the year in the league.

Eze may have to wait a while for his next top-flight start too, after he was taken off at half-time at the Gtech Stadium. After the game Mikel Arteta defended the player, but there is no getting away from the fact that Eze's first season as an Arsenal player – on a personal level – is turning into a really disappointing one.

Florian Wirtz is getting better and better

"I think he had moments and it's not easy when you move to a new club," Arteta said. "It's always like this, and when you play against a team that is like this and the ball is a lot of times not on the floor and you have to be constantly breaking the play and do that, especially for attacking and creative players, it's more difficult."

Meanwhile, Wirtz produced another impressive performance on Wednesday as Liverpool registered a 1-0 victory over Sunderland, becoming the first team to win an away league game at the Stadium of Light this season.

Virgil van Dijk scored the winning goal, but Slot said that Wirtz's performance merited a goal. "Not for the first time he was really good," Slot said. "But recently when he was really good he was also involved in goals and assists.

"I think today he was very close and maybe should have been on the scoreboard with the amount of quality he has. But it's good to see, not only him but also other players developing so well and playing another good game of football."

Eze might have started off the season in the better form than Wirtz, but at peak form, there is no comparison between the two players, and that's starting to show.