In the fifth round of the Champions League, Arsenal will face Bayern for the top spot at home. The BBC issued an article talking about the relationship between Eze and Olise, the former Crystal Palace teammates. The article mentioned that it was Oli...
In the fifth round of the Champions League, Arsenal will face Bayern for the top spot at home. The BBC issued an article talking about the relationship between Eze and Olise, the former Crystal Palace teammates.
The article mentioned that it was Olise who taught Eze how to play chess. The latter once won the Masters Tournament hosted by the chess website chess.com with an undefeated record and received a bonus of US$20,000. The two often played against each other outside training when they played for Crystal Palace, thus deepening their friendship and gradually developing into a perfect cooperation on the pitch. The career trajectories of the two players are also very similar, starting in the English Championship, shining at Crystal Palace, and now becoming rivals in the Champions League and the national team.
For Olise, since joining Bayern with a transfer fee of 50 million pounds last summer, everything has been going smoothly. He won the Bundesliga championship, was nominated for the Ballon d'Or, and became a regular player for the French national team. This season, his performance has reached a new level, with 9 goals and 10 assists in 18 games. He is involved in a goal every 85 minutes. His efficiency is twice that of Crystal Palace. While the number of shots has increased significantly, his creativity remains the same. He can create 2.4 chances every 90 minutes in the Bundesliga, which is slightly higher than when he was at Crystal Palace (2.3). Although the player seems uncomfortable facing the media, he will definitely want to take this opportunity to show his ability to the English fans after returning to England this time.
For Eze, who has been an Arsenal fan since he was a child, he just experienced an unforgettable weekend. He scored his first hat-trick for the senior team in the North London Derby against Tottenham. Eze's career started later than Olise and was more tortuous. He was abandoned by clubs such as Arsenal, Fulham, Millwall and Reading. However, after moving to Crystal Palace from Queens Park Rangers for 19.5 million pounds in 2020, his development has been soaring and he returned to Arsenal for 60 million pounds this summer.
Since the beginning of 2025, no English player has participated in more goals in the Premier League than Eze (10 goals and 8 assists), second only to Haaland (25 times), Salah (23 times) and Mbemo (21 times). So far this season, he has 5 goals and 3 assists, and his efficiency per 90 minutes is the same as when he was at Crystal Palace. This time the Champions League encounter comes, I believe both players hope that they can become the key figure in determining the outcome of the game.
