After an unprecedented summer of spending, the pressure is really on for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal.

On deadline day, the Gunners completed the signing of Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen, the Ecuadorian arriving in North London on a season-long loan but with a £45m obligation to buy.

He becomes the Gunners’ eighth new recruit of the summer, following Viktor Gyökeres, Martín Zubimendi, Christian Nørgaard, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera, Kepa Arrizabalaga and, most excitingly of all, Eberechi Eze.

Around £300m has been spent on these new recruits, while very little was recouped by the departures of Nuno Tavares, Marquinhos, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Reiss Nelson, Fábio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Despite the big money spent, this is a squad built around a foundation of Hale End graduates, namely Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Bukayo Saka, 15 year old wonderkid Max Dowman and, of course, the returning Eze.

However, did they let the best Hale End kid leave when he was just nine years old, one that surely would’ve fired the Gunners to that illusive Premier League title had he stayed?

What Eberechi Eze will bring to Arsenal

Eze made his Arsenal debut during Sunday’s disappointing defeat at Anfield, introduced in the 70th minute to replace Gabriel Martinelli.

If the Gunners are going to wrestle the Premier League title away from the Reds, they’re going to need to become more creative in the final third, as the table below documents.

Goals

6

3rd

xG

4.4

6th

Shots

37

4th

Shots on target

8

13th

Passes into final third

73

16th

Big chances

4

16th

Touches in attacking third

411

10th

Two caveats first and foremost; we’re only three games into this Premier League season, so that offers a very small sample size, but, on the flip side, Arsenal did demolish Leeds 5-0 last weekend, potentially actually skewing their data in a positive sense.

Those aside, it has to be a concern that the Gunners rank 16th for both big chances created and passes into the final third so far this season, rarely threatening at Old Trafford or Anfield in open play.

Thus, Arteta will hope the arrival of Eze will solve their creativity issues, and it was genuinely spine-tingling to be present when he was presented to the crowd last weekend, a completely surreal moment for the player, while the reaction of the supporters was like nothing else the Emirates has ever witnessed; Thierry Henry’s return, also against Leeds, coming closest.

Eze himself has spoken about the fact that, when he was released by Arsenal at the age of 13, he thought his dream was over, but, after spending time at Fulham, Reading, Millwall, Wycombe, QPR and Palace, he’s finally home.

However, there is another former Hale End kid currently plying his trade at the highest level of world football, someone you may have heard of.

Arsenal's biggest academy regret

Famously, Tottenham supporters sing “Harry Kane, he’s one of our own”, which is very much true, there’s no denying that, but that wasn’t always the case.

During the 2001/02 season, when Kane was just eight years old, he spent a year in Arsenal’s academy but was released, with then academy director Liam Brady later admitting that he was deemed “a bit chubby” and not “very athletic”.

Well, he would certainly prove them wrong, joining Tottenham in 2004, starting a 19-year association with Spurs, scoring 280 goals in 435 appearances for their first team, breaking Jimmy Greaves’ all-time goals record by netting against Manchester City a couple of months before his departure.

Then-Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou labelled him an irreplaceable “generational” talent, while another former Tottenham manager Antonio Conte simply described him as a “world-class striker”.

Now with Bayern Munich of course, a move to Bavaria has not stopped Kane from continuing his scoring spree against Arsenal, converting a penalty in North London as they dumped Arsenal out of the Champions League back in April 2024.

That was his 15th career goal against Arsenal, only on target against Leicester (20) and Everton (16) with greater frequency.

As one might expect, Kane has started the new season on fire, scoring six goals in four appearances, most notably bagging a hat-trick as die Rekordmeister demolished RB Leipzig 6-0 on the opening Friday night of the season.

This takes his tally to 91 goals in 100 appearances for Bayern, averaging a goal every 91 minutes, which isn’t bad.

As a result, despite the fact he’s now 32 years old, Kane’s estimated transfer value remains £65m, compared to Eze’s which stands at £48m, also higher than the £60m the Gunners paid to secure his signature.

Tottenham supporters were not happy a fortnight ago when Eze did a last-minute U-turn, snubbing them to join their hated North London rivals.

So, could you imagine if, once he’s finished hoovering up multiple Meisterschale in Munich, Kane returned to the club with whom he began his academy career?

That would be the event that would finally break the internet.