The attacking midfielder showed he has the skillset to complete the Gunners’ transformation into champions
Before Tottenham Hotspur’s visit to the Emirates, Eberechi Eze had scored three in three games against them. Mikel Arteta will be extremely delighted with his fourth, fifth and then sixth as Arsenal ruthlessly dispatched their north London neighbours and claimed a six-point lead at the summit of the Premier League.
This is of course the season for Mikel Arteta. Having finished second three times in a row, the Gunners are seeking to shed their flaws under their relentless imperator and claim the prize that has long eluded them. Arteta will have confidence that with a weapon like Eze his side can finally conquer.
Before firing uncontrollably against Spurs Eze laid down warning signs. Very early on, he created a sublime chance for Declan Rice. Receiving the ball from Bukayo Saka right in front of the penalty arc, Eze scooped the ball over the heads of Spurs defenders. Rice fired on the volley. Guglielmo Vicario parried; it was a sorry thing, a helpless scramble to block with his knees clamped together. The ball ping-ponged off him and Kevin Danso before going out for a corner kick.
Then after Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard had combined beautifully to unlock the flood gates, Eze added the second. It was a beautiful thing. Receiving the ball right on the edge of the box, he paused, performed a sleight of foot, and Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur disappeared. Eze continued to accelerate and then slammed the ball into the net before Micky van de Ven could reach it. Vicario was unable to parry.
Eze can at times seem to be a slow, plodding figure. At the Emirates he had black gloves on and shuffled around at times, like an interloper looking to steal some food at a private party. But on other occasions he also displayed warp speed, jumping onto the ball and aiming for his target straightaway. The thing with Eze is that his technique is also crisp and sharp. His second goal was a great example of it. Great touch to receive the ball at the edge of the box. Pick a spot. Then unleash the shot, as hard and flat as possible.
The third goal was almost a replica. This is a player whose left foot seems to work just as well as his right. And he seemed to make that very clear: scoring first with his right, then his left, then his right again.
As complimentary as this game and the final score was for Arsenal, for long stretches in the first half it was chaotic and seemed to be heading nowhere in particular, the footballing equivalent of a group of young men searching for a paper clip in a cluttered office.
But in the chaos there were littered moments of quality. Trossard shone, and so did Merino, but Eze shone brightest. In those moments when he found his groove he seemed to strut around the pitch, drifting around in central areas, the football happening around him but with his permission, following the plot he had created. It all started with Trossard’s spin but Eze’s three brilliant pieces of skill settled the game.
Near the end he picked up the ball and without thinking, attempted an audacious lob from deep in his own half, almost close to Arsenal’s penalty area, after Vicario had strayed into midfield. Has anyone ever actually tried a shot from there? There was very little chance of it going in, but by this time Eze was chock-full of confidence, his hat-trick secured and the fourth looking very much possible.
First because Eze was quite good. But also because Spurs were really poor. Arranged in a 3-4-3 shape at the start, Thomas Frank’s men lacked initiative. The wing-backs were ordered to tuck in to form a back five when Arsenal had the ball. Except the problem was Arsenal seemed to have the ball all the time, so it became nearly a permanent back five. Palhinha and Bentancur were tasked with holding the midfield, but they quailed before the triple threat of Martin Zubimendi, Rice and Eze. Merino, starting as a false nine, regularly dropped deep to cause further headaches. In one of his moments dropping deep he created the first goal.
Spurs were unable to cope. Richarlison struggled. The Brazilian barely touched the ball at all in the first half. In the second, five minutes before the hour, he ran into a loose ball with David Raya off his line, and he unleashed all his pent-up rage into an inch-perfect lob that had Raya crashing into his net in vain.
At that point it always seemed unlikely to be anything more than a consolation, and so it proved, Eze adding his third and Arsenal’s fourth 21 minutes later.
