Zubimendi and Eze: Sociedad's metronome, Palace's showman, one Arsenal season

Two men who belong to other clubs

If you asked a football fan to picture Martín Zubimendi, they would picture Real Sociedad. He joined the Basque club's academy in 2011, made his senior debut in 2016, and spent the best part of a decade becoming the side's defensive heartbeat, over 200 appearances, a Copa del Rey in 2019–20, and a reputation, fair or not, as the closest thing La Liga had to a young Sergio Busquets. He turned down bigger moves for years to stay loyal to the club that raised him.

Ask the same question about Eberechi Eze and the answer is Crystal Palace. Released by Millwall as a teenager, rebuilt at Queens Park Rangers, Eze arrived at Selhurst Park in 2020 for around £17 million and became the club's totem: over 150 appearances, an Achilles injury overcome, and, in 2025, the only goal in Palace's first-ever major trophy, the FA Cup final. His farewell statement called Palace a "family club" and said the Cup win would connect him with their supporters "for generations."

Neither man's career, told in isolation, has anything to do with the other. One is a Spanish deep-lying playmaker shaped by Anoeta's calm; the other is an English attacking midfielder shaped by south London's cages and QPR's loan spells. That is exactly why 2025–26 at Arsenal is worth pausing on.

How they ended up in the same squad

Zubimendi's move was the quieter arrival on paper, if not in fee: £55.8 million from Real Sociedad in July 2025, announced as a long-term signing to anchor Arsenal's midfield. He debuted in a 1–0 win over Manchester United, then scored a brace against Nottingham Forest in September, a performance good enough to win him the Premier League's Goal of the Month.

Eze's move was louder, and later. He completed a £60 million transfer to his boyhood club on deadline day, so late that he had to watch Arsenal's opening home fixture against Leeds from the stands, unregistered. His announcement video featured Ian Wright, another player who had crossed from Crystal Palace to Arsenal at 27, a neat historical echo for a transfer that otherwise had little precedent in Eze's own career arc. He scored his first Premier League goal for Arsenal against Crystal Palace, of all opponents, and later put five goals past Tottenham across two North London derbies, the first player to manage that feat in nearly a century.

What the season actually gave them

By the end of 2025–26, both were Premier League champions with Arsenal, Zubimendi the rarer feat, featuring in every single league match, a distinction shared with only Jens Lehmann before him. Both reached the Champions League final, losing to PSG, with Eze missing a penalty in the shootout. Both had arrived from clubs the football world still associates them with far more instinctively than Arsenal: Zubimendi forever tied to Real Sociedad's patient build-up play, Eze forever tied to Palace's eagles badge and that FA Cup-winning strike.

That is the quiet surprise of this pairing. Not a falling-out, not a rivalry, just two players whose identities were forged so completely elsewhere that seeing their names on the same Arsenal team sheet still reads, for a moment, like a mistake.