It was an unguarded comment from an Arsenal official and it came shortly after Eberechi Eze’s mural outside the Emirates Stadium had been defaced with white paint – presumably by a Tottenham fan. It summed up the snark between the clubs and Arsenal’s delight at pipping their rivals to Eze’s signature from Crystal Palace at the end of August. “We sign a top-class forward for £60m. They throw paint at walls.”
Eze’s mural has since been redone; it now has a caption to reinforce the storyline about the boyhood Arsenal fan coming back to his club after being released as a youngster. “All roads lead home.” So it did not need a joke from Thomas Frank on Friday to set up Eze v Spurs. “Who’s Eze?” the Spurs manager had said; a classic of the fate-tempting genre.
