Arsenal Find New Aura As Thrashing Of Spurs Cements Title Credentials

Arsenal’s signing of Eberechi Eze in August felt like a statement of intent and not just because they acquired one of the Premier League’s most exciting players for £67.5m ($90.6m).

Eze had been on the verge of agreeing a switch from Crystal Palace to Tottenham Hotspur just days earlier, until the Gunners nabbed him from under their rivals’ nose and convinced him to return to the club he left aged 13.

While Arsenal celebrated Eze’s arrival with a mural outside the Emirates Stadium bearing the caption “All roads lead home”, Tottenham were left smarting.

On Friday, in his press conference ahead of the north London derby, Spurs manager Thomas Frank was asked whether he regretted missing out on signing the England international in the summer.

“Who’s Eze?,” came the reply.

There was no malice attached to Frank’s comments and his tongue was firmly in his cheek as he fired back to the reporters, but his joke backfired spectacularly on Sunday afternoon.

Eze scored a hat-trick as Arsenal swatted Tottenham aside to open up a six-point gap over Chelsea at the top of the Premier League.

If Frank didn’t know who Eze was, he sure does now.

And if anyone still doubted Arsenal are in the box seat to end a 21-year wait for a Premier League title, there can surely be no lingering questions.

Mikel Arteta’s men are the best team in the league so far and further cemented their credentials on Sunday with a trouncing of their North London rivals.

Eze’s first goal came late in the first half, when he managed to find just enough space on the edge of the box to fire home to double the hosts’ lead after Leandro Trossard had opened the scoring.

Eze’s second and third carried an aura of inevitability, with the Arsenal forward twice receiving the ball in acres of space that had been vacated by Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha before curling the ball past Guglielmo Vicario.

Having scored just twice in 15 Arsenal appearances, Eze now became only the fourth player to score a hat-trick in the history of the North London derby and the first since Alan Sunderland in 1978.

“Things happen for a reason,” Arteta said of Eze.

“After the international duty, he had two days off, and after one 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.

“When a player has such a talent, and his desire is at that level, then these things happen. And he fully deserves it. I’m so happy for him, because since the day that he came, he brought something else to the team.

“So it’s a joy, it’s an aura that this team needed and hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence, to him and the team, that at any moment he can win us a game. And that’s the ability that he has and he certainly needs to fulfil that talent.”

It was telling to hear Arteta suggest that things happen for a reason, because there is nothing casual about Arsenal this season.

Second in each of the past three seasons, the Gunners have developed a reputation as nearly men, squandering an eight-point lead over Manchester City three years ago and then finishing second despite racking up 89 points the following season, the third-most by second-placed team in the history of the Premier League.

The big prize, however, has remained frustratingly elusive. Arsenal’s title challenge petered out in January last season, disrupted by injuries to Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.

The fact the German was the club’s top goalscorer in the Premier League with nine goals despite missing 18 games also spoke of the need for a proven striker.

In the summer Arteta moved swiftly to address those issues, with Viktor Gyokeres arriving from Sporting Club in a deal worth up to $65.7m ($86m), while Martin Zubimendi and Noni Madueke joined from Real Sociedad for £60m ($81m) and Chelsea for £48m ($65m) respectively.

Eze’s arrival late in the transfer window took Arsenal’s total spending over £270m ($365m) once all the potential add-ons are triggered.

The results could not have been more evident. Arsenal have the joint-best attack in the Premier League and the best defence.

Crucially, their squad is now deep enough to cope with key absences. On Sunday, Gyokeres, Odegaard and Gabriel were all out, along with long-term absentees Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, yet the Gunners barely missed a beat.

Abysmal as Tottenham were – their 0.07 xG was their second-lowest since record began – this was a statement win for Arsenal coming on a weekend in which City and Liverpool both lost again.

This is the fifth time in the Premier League era that the Gunners have been clear at the top of the table at this stage of the season.

Arsenal have failed to win the title in three of those occasions, but their six-point gap over Chelsea is the biggest lead they have ever had at this stage of the campaign.

Their mettle will be tested as soon as Sunday when they travel across London to face their closest rivals.

City slump as Liverpool sink without trace

Chelsea remain a difficult side to assess but are growing Enzo Maresca, who acknowledged his side are “confident and doing well” after beating Burnley 2-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Despite winning the Club’s World Cup in the summer, the Blues were nobody’s idea of a title challenger but deserve to be treated as such as they head into the meeting against Arsenal in second place.

Like their London rivals, Chelsea face a tough test in Europe as they host Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night, before Arsenal welcome Bayern Munich a day later.

If Maresca and Arteta will look at the Champions League as a chance for their respective clubs to carry on their fine form, Pep Guardiola and Arne Slot turn to European football for respite after a dreadful weekend.

City’s title charge stalled as soon as it had seemingly begun, with a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday evening undoing all the good done by two consecutive wins before the international break.

The defeat left Guardiola’s team seven points adrift of Arsenal in third place. Not an insurmountable gap by City’s vintage standards, but it’s hard to dispel the feeling their current iteration is not vintage at all.

Two hours before City fell to Newcastle, Liverpool were annihilated at home by Nottingham Forest, who won at Anfield for the second consecutive season.

The Reds’ 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Sean Dyche’s team was their sixth defeat in the last seven Premier League games, piling further pressure on Arne Slot and leaving the reigning champions 11 points behind Arsenal.

Their title defence, surely, is all but over. Arsenal’s title charge, meanwhile, has barely begun.