Eberechi Eze returns to Crystal Palace on Sunday as a Premier League title winner with Arsenal, and Selhurst Park is likely to salute him with a guard of honour at 4pm. The winger who once came through Palace’s academy comes back having already punished the club he left, and the symbolism is hard to miss.
Eze scored Crystal Palace’s historic winning goal in last year’s FA Cup final against Manchester City, then was unveiled at the Emirates Stadium in August as a returning hero after Arsenal beat Tottenham to his signing. He has since delivered when it mattered, scoring five goals in two appearances against Tottenham, a decisive goal against Palace at the Emirates in October and another against Newcastle in April. By the time Arsenal sealed the title, the 26-year-old had already become one of the season’s defining figures in their attack.
The scale of the turnaround matters because Eze did not arrive as a finished fit. He needed time to adjust to Mikel Arteta’s demands without the ball, a sign that even the brightest arrivals at Arsenal have to absorb the same heavy system before they can fully shape it. That context helps explain why his impact grew through the spring rather than the autumn, and why his goals now sit within a title race Arsenal finally finished off after 22 years without the league crown.
Yet Eze’s own view of the noise around Arsenal remains blunt. When asked in April about rival fans willing his team to fail, he answered, “I don’t care,” and added that he was “not too interested in what people think or how they feel about us winning.” He said he knew Arsenal had “a team that is more than capable and has proven that we are of the highest level,” before closing the thought with the line that when they do win, “it will down to everyone else to deal with it.”
That confidence sits against a final day that still has something riding on it elsewhere. West Ham were given a last-day lifeline by Tottenham’s defeat to Chelsea on Tuesday, and Arsenal’s match at Palace comes as one of all 10 Premier League games shown live across Sky Sports channels, all kicking off at 4pm. Nuno Espirito Santo’s choice to drop Taty Castellanos and switch to a back three backfired at St James’ Park, a reminder that the closing afternoon can still tilt on one selection or one result.
For Palace, Sunday is not just about the title winners across the pitch. It is about a former academy player returning in the colors of the champions, having already left his mark on the club in the FA Cup final and then moved on to a bigger stage. Arsenal also have a Champions League final to come after the Palace game, which gives the visit a strange double edge: a celebration of what they have already won, and a pause before the next test.
Eze’s return carries the feel of a full circle, but not a tidy one. He is coming back with medals, goals and a title, and with Palace supporters preparing to greet a player they once watched as one of their own. The story on Sunday is not whether he has made it. It is how loudly Selhurst Park chooses to remind him that it knew first.
