Former Crystal Palace teammates Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, now key forwards for Arsenal and Bayern Munich respectively, face off in a Champions League clash, highlighting their parallel career ascents.
According to a report detailing the career paths and current form of Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, the two former Crystal Palace stars are on a collision course ahead of their highly anticipated match-up at the Emirates.
For Michael Olise, things have gone “perfectly since his move to Munich.” The 23-year-old, who joined Palace in 2021 for £8m, saw a £50m move to Bayern follow in 2024 after he delivered 10 goals from 19 Premier League appearances for Palace that season.
Since arriving in Germany, he has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or and become a regular for the France national team.
After an impressive first season, Olise appears to be hitting new heights this term, with nine goals and 10 assists from 18 games.
Just like Eze, Olise comes into this match after a player of the match performance in which he scored two goals and made three assists in Bayern’s 6-2 win over Freiburg.
His impressive stats include having: Scored or created a goal every 85 minutes for Bayern this season (compared with a goal or assist every 141 minutes at Palace).
He is also Scored twice as often this season as he did at Palace (one in every four games at Palace, one in every two for Bayern this season).
Eberechi Eze, who is a “boyhood Arsenal fan,” is also enjoying a stellar week, having scored his first hat-trick in senior football and the first in a north London derby since 1978 as Arsenal thrashed Tottenham 4-1 on Sunday.
Eze’s journey was “slower than Olise’s” but his form led to a £60m summer move to Arsenal after helping Palace win the FA Cup.
The England international’s current form is exceptional: No English player has been involved in more Premier League goals than Eze since the start of 2025 and his 18 involvements (10 goals and eight assists) is bettered only by Erling Haaland (25), Mohamed Salah (23) and Bryan Mbeumo (21).
As with Olise, he is shooting more regularly than at Palace, his 25 shots in the Premier League the most of any Arsenal player this season.
The report concludes that at the Emirates, it will be a meeting of “two forwards on a similar trajectory who retain real affection for one another,” but “for 90 minutes, each will hope to be the one making the match-winning move.”