LONDON: Eberechi Eze has arrived at Arsenal with the sort of perfect timing which brought him 40 goals in 169 appearances for Crystal Palace and lifted him into Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.

The 27-year-old was paraded by the Gunners before their 5-0 demolition of Daniel Farke’s promoted Leeds after his £67.5m transfer to the club he supported as a boy. What he saw will have convinced him not only that he was correct in preferring Arsenal to transfer rivals Tottenham but that he will soon thrown into action.

Manager Mikel Arteta was delighted with Eze’s signing, with his team’s all-round performance and with several individual efforts in particular. Jurrien Timber scored twice from devastating Declan Rice set pieces, new centre-forward Viktor Gyokeres opened his Arsenal account with two goals of his own and 15-year-old Max Dowman made a thrilling debut as a substitute.

Dowman, tall and quick, drew the penalty from which Gyokeres scored his second goal. Dowman, at 15 years 235 days, is only the third player to make a Premier debut before reaching 16.

Victory brought bad news as well as good ahead of Sunday’s visit to Liverpool. Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Christian Norgaard and Ben White were already out injured before Bukayo Saka pulled a hamstring and captain Martin Odegaard wrenched his right shoulder. Both had to be replaced.

Saka risks missing both the Liverpool clash and England’s crucial World Cup qualifier in Serbia on September 9. Arteta said: “Hopefully it’s not as bad as the injury last season.” At least he has Eze ready and eager to step up.

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