It’s been a pretty good start to the season for Arsenal so far this year.

Mikel Arteta’s side may have lost to Liverpool before the international break, but they did so due to a freak free-kick.

Moreover, they’ve won their other three Premier League games without conceding a goal and came out 2-0 winners from their Champions League opener last night.

Moreover, the team was seriously strengthened over the summer, with stars like Eberechi Eze coming in, although he ended up costing more than three other stars of the squad did combined.

Eze's start to life at Arsenal

While his £67.5m price tag means he is still some distance away from being Arsenal’s most expensive signing, there was still an expectation that Eze would be able to make a quick impact at the club this season.

After all, he’s Premier League proven and racked up a brilliant tally of 14 goals and 11 assists in 43 games for Crystal Palace last season.

Unfortunately, although he did a couple of good things on his debut away to Liverpool, he was only given 20 minutes of action; therefore, it’s hard to take anything from that game.

However, he was handed his first start on the weekend, and considering he received an 8/10 match rating from Sam Tabuteau, it would be fair to say he made quite the impression.

His standout contribution came when he provided a brilliant assist for Viktor Gyokeres in the first minute of the second half, but he did so much more than that.

For example, he completed three dribbles, was accurate in 100% of his long balls, won two fouls and was generally a threat and positive outlet whenever he had the ball at his feet.

He wasn’t quite able to replicate this in Bilbao, though, as even though he didn’t put in a bad performance, he did struggle to have as much of an impact on the game.

In fact, in his 71 minutes of action, the Greenwich-born ace amassed a paltry combined expected goals and assist figure of 0.14, didn’t take a single shot on target and failed to create a big chance.

In short, we’ve seen what Eze can do at his best in the game against Forest, but we’ve also seen how starting out wide can sometimes cause him to fade out of games.

Arteta will be hoping to see more of the former for the price the Englishman cost, although the price of players doesn’t always reflect their ability, as a trio of Arsenal stars somehow cost the club less than Eze combined.

The Arsenal trio who cost less than Eze

Arsenal have made more than their fair share of bargain signings over the years, from Gabriel Martinelli to David Raya and even arguably Jurrien Timber.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

However, in this instance, we are talking about the defensive trio of William Saliba, who cost around £27m, Gabriel Maghalese, who cost £23m and Cristhian Mosquera, who cost just £13m.

In other words, the Gunners formed one of the best centre-back pairings in world football and signed an incredibly exciting prospect for a combined price of just £63m.

Let’s start with Saliba and Gabriel, as even though the North Londoners team is full of important players, an argument could be made that they are the most important.

They’ve now played 118 games together, winning 77 of them, drawing 18, losing 23 and averaging 2.11 points per game.

Appearances

118

Minutes

9819′

Wins

77

Draws

18

Losses

23

Points per Game

2.11

Goals Conceded

113

Moreover, the outrageously impressive pairing has only conceded 113 goals in that time, and it feels like they could let in even fewer this season.

Moving on to the young Spaniard, and while it is early, he’s already shown enough to convince some fans that he is going to be a superstar.

For example, in the game against Bilbao, the defensive “monster,” as dubbed by one analyst, made six clearances, took 93 touches, made one tackle and was accurate in 75 of 79 passes.

Moreover, FBref already rank him in the top 7% of centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues for ball recoveries, meaning he can be relied upon to put out fires.

Ultimately, Arsenal have managed to sign two of the best defenders in the world and one of the most exciting up-and-coming defenders for less than Eze’s transfer fee, which is business that should be applauded.