GleamVibe

When news broke that William Saliba would again not be partnering Gabriel at centre-back for Arsenal’s match against Leeds United last weekend, it was a blow. Then news arrived that Bukayo Saka was on the bench after struggling with illness. Trepidation crept into the Emirates.

In a certain household in Rio de Janeiro, however, the mood remained buoyant. “That’s because the biggest star at Arsenal is the team,” their former striker Eduardo tells The Athletic, having watched the game with his son kitted out in Arsenal colours.

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“There have been some superstars who have signed, but I don’t think this is a club built for superstars. The last one was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but that didn’t work out. They don’t rely on one or two players. Everyone can be a game-winner, even if that is the defenders scoring. Mikel Arteta has got them working as a team and not as individuals. It is about hard work and the dressing room being together.”

More on Mikel Arteta, the man who rebuilt Arsenal…

When Mesut Ozil signed for Arsenal on deadline day of the summer window in 2013, the fanfare that greeted his arrival was befitting of a king. Arsene Wenger smashed the club’s record fee to sign him for £42.5million ($53m) and the German midfielder — arriving from Real Madrid as La Liga’s top assister three years running — was considered the stellar name who could perhaps end the prolonged trophy drought.

It did not work out that way. The only comparable signings in terms of stature since — Alexis Sanchez and later Aubameyang — also failed to end Arsenal’s Premier League title drought, which stands at 19 years.

Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived as serial winners from Manchester City, Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey and several more arrived for sizeable fees, and Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have hit double figures for goals and assists after being introduced to the first team as teenagers. No player stands tall above the rest in terms of profile.

“Jesus is a great player with Premier League experience and his return from injury helps massively, but it doesn’t matter who starts,” Eduardo says. “You can see they are all playing for the team and have adopted Arteta’s mentality and vision of football. The atmosphere in the team looks amazing, which is crucial if you are to win the title. Arteta looks like he has won over the dressing room as the players really respect him.

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“Watching Arsenal play reminds me of my team under Wenger. They are on the same road as we were in 2007-08. Then, the whole world used to say that, apart from Barcelona, Arsenal played the most beautiful football — and they are doing that again now.”

Arsenal came closest to adding their 14th league championship in 2007-08 and 2010-11, the former of which was Eduardo’s debut season following his move from Dinamo Zagreb.

The comparisons with that 2008 team can be seen in how the baton of responsibility was shared between primary goalscorer Emmanuel Adebayor and his supporting cast of Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Eduardo, Nicklas Bendtner and midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Tomas Rosicky.

When Van Persie suffered a recurrence of his thigh injury in January 2008, Wenger turned to Eduardo to replace that missing firepower. The Croatia international, who was born in Brazil, took his chance, contributing four goals and three assists in the run of seven league games after becoming Adebayor’s strike partner. Arsenal were top.

Then tragedy struck in February, three minutes into their away match at Birmingham City. Eduardo’s left leg was broken following a reckless challenge by Martin Taylor — the graphic nature of which was so brutal that Sky Sports did not show the replay. Arsenal drew 2-2 that day after conceding to the 10 men of Birmingham in the 95th minute — at full-time, a distraught William Gallas sat on the pitch before being escorted off by Wenger. After those two dropped points, Arsenal drew four, lost two and won just one of their next six games as their title bid collapsed.

“My injury was very serious, so after the surgery, I got the cast on and flew back to Brazil to begin my rehab,” Eduardo says. “I wasn’t there to be able to speak to them (the team) about what went wrong and haven’t spoken to them in the years since about it. All I know is that we drew four times and Manchester United took over.

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“I still receive messages from fans about that season who say if I hadn’t got injured, Arsenal would have won the league. I always hear this message but it was just unfortunate that it happened to me. It makes me sad that we didn’t win any trophies at all as that was a strong team. I think about it to this day as we had a great chance.”

It has been so long since Arsenal got their hands on the title that any hurdle — whether that be a dramatic loss to Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League or an injury to Saliba — makes it feel like the wheels are about to come off. But with nine games remaining, Arteta’s team are yet to wilt.

Eduardo, who is speaking to The Athletic via his involvement with Betway, says his son is at Flamengo’s academy but has also caught the Arsenal bug. “My son is the No 1 fan,” says Eduardo. “I’m not even sure it is because I played for Arsenal, but he is crazy about them and he keeps telling me that one day he will play for Arsenal.

“When Arsenal lose a game he cries. Last season when they lost to Spurs and missed out on the Champions League spot, he cried a lot. He watches every game he can and has all the shirts, but not this season’s yet. He really likes Odegaard and thinks he is a great player, so I hope that he can fulfil his dream of becoming an Arsenal player one day.”

Whether that ambition comes true or not will be another decade in the making, but one thing Eduardo couldn’t stomach is if Arsenal are still waiting on title No 14 by that point. It would mean this side had followed a similar fate to the one he played in — and that burden of regret is something he doesn’t want the current generation to live with.

“In today’s football, it is a lot harder as there are so many clubs with a lot of money, which makes it more competitive, so they are doing great to compete,” he says. “I just want to say to them keep going and doing what you are doing. Bring the title home — we deserve it.”

(Top photo: Eduardo celebrates with Cesc Fabregas during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Arsenal in 2008. Credit: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

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