Eze Fulgurante: Hat-Trick and Guiding Star Aura Lead Arsenal to Derby Victory

Arteta praises Eberechi Eze’s “aura” after his hat-trick in the North London derby

Mikel Arteta praised the “aura” that Eberechi Eze has brought to Arsenal after he rejected a transfer to Tottenham and then scored a hat-trick against them. After Leandro Trossard opened the scoring in the 36th minute on Sunday, Eze scored the first hat-trick in a North London derby in 47 years, with Richarlison’s sublime long-range goal as the only response Spurs could offer. Eze chose not to join Tottenham when he left Crystal Palace in the summer.

Things happen for a reason. And after the international service, he had two days off, and after a day he wanted to train, and he wanted to improve, and he wanted to do extra practice and he was asking me questions about this and that.

Mikel Arteta

Arteta continued: “When a player has so much talent, and his desire is at that level, then these things happen. And he completely deserves it. I am very happy for him, because from the day he arrived, he brought something more to the team. “So it’s a joy, it’s an aura that this team needed and I hope it gives him and the team a lot of confidence, that at any moment he can win us a game. That’s the skill he has and he certainly needs to fulfill that talent.” Arteta played down the significance of Arsenal opening up a six-point lead at the top of the Premier League after thrashing Tottenham.

On a weekend in which both Manchester City and Liverpool, the current champion, were defeated, the Gunners capitalized emphatically to move away from Chelsea at the top and, when asked what the difference meant, Arteta said: “In this league? Not much.

“We are doing very well. We have been very consistent and that’s it. I mean, when you look at the results, whether they win or lose, the difference in the score and what actually happens in the matches is really small. “We know that. We need the players to return immediately today. We have Noni Madueke back on the field, which is great, but we are still missing many important players and we are going to need them all.” After conceding an equalizing goal in the 94th minute to draw 2-2 at Sunderland before the international break, Arsenal returned to winning ways and Arteta said: “In the end against Sunderland, we lost two points in the last play of the game basically and we went to the international break with that bitter feeling because we didn’t concede any goals and we had ten consecutive wins [before that]. “We wanted to get back to winning ways and the North London derby and today’s performance, it’s a good start.”