Too Eze: Hat-trick hero sparks Spurs rout

Eberechi Eze came close to joining Tottenham during the summer. On Sunday, he scored a hat-trick against Spurs for their biggest rival.

The England playmaker was the inspiration behind Arsenal's 4-1 win in the north London derby that left his team with a six-point lead in the Premier League.

Eze added to Leandro Trossard's 36th-minute opening goal with his first in the 41st, and made it 3-0 just 23 seconds into the second half by slotting in a left-footed finish.

Eze completed his first senior hattrick — and the first by an Arsenal player against Tottenham since 1978 — with a curling shot in the 76th.

It has proved to be the perfect weekend for Arsenal, after its two biggest title rivals — Manchester City and Liverpool — lost on Saturday.

"It is special," Eze said. "Words can't explain this."

He had scored only twice in 15 previous appearances for Arsenal, but this stunning performance underlined what Tottenham missed out on.

"I prayed for it. This is what I pray for. I prayed for a hat-trick, so I am grateful to God," Eze said.

"That was the prayer today. God gave it to me and that is faith, man. All my family is here, and that makes it even more special for me."

Now, it's Chelsea that is Arsenal's closest challenger in second place. After 12 games, however, the Gunners are the favorite to win a first topflight league title since 2004.

Tottenham's consolation wound up being the goal of the game at Emirates Stadium. Richarlison picked up a loose ball and chipped Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya from around 45 yards to make it 3-1.

Eze made sure there would be no comeback, though, three months to the day since joining his boyhood club from Crystal Palace for a reported initial fee of 60 million pounds ($80 million) after being earlier linked with Tottenham.

Asked if he might have been wearing the white of Spurs on Sunday, Eze said: "Let's not speak about that."

Eze is getting a run in central midfield because of an injury to Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, and he is slowly growing into the role.

Arsenal was not short of forward options even before Eze's arrival, but after his treble sent his team six points clear on Sunday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta suggested Eze could become a key part of his attacking jigsaw.

"He's a big player who can create magic moments that unbalance a team," Arteta said.

"Things happen for a reason. And after the international duty, he had two days off, and after one day he wanted to train, and he wanted to improve. 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."

After goals for England against Latvia and Serbia in October and November, Eze looks assured of a place in Thomas Tuchel's World Cup squad. And, if he scales the heights he showed against Tottenham on a regular basis, he may go to North America as a Premier League title winner.

"Hopefully, it will give a lot of confidence to him, and the team, that at any moment, he can win us a game," Arteta said.

"He has such quality and capacity to finish actions in different ways that we need to play him very close to the box.

"We need to play to his qualities. The more he spends time there, the better for the team."

Spurs' manager Thomas Frank said it was a "hard defeat to take", adding: "It's extremely painful to stand here after an extremely bad performance — against the worst team we could put in a bad performance against. It was the perfect storm."

Rogers double

Aston Villa playmaker Morgan Rogers has just returned from international duty with England, where he is currently keeping Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham out of the starting team. He showed exactly why against Leeds.

Rogers clipped in a finish from Donyell Malen's cross for the equalizer in the 48th minute, before demonstrating wonderful technique to whip a free kick over the defensive wall and into the net in the 75th to seal a 2-1 comeback win for Villa.

Leeds took the lead at a highly charged Elland Road when Lukas Nmecha bundled home from close range, after Villa defender Ezri Konsa cleared the ball off the goal line following Anton Stach's header. There was a video review to check if Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was impeded in the buildup, but the goal was allowed.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin thought he'd equalized for Leeds two minutes after Rogers scored his second, but it was ruled out for handball.

It was Villa's sixth win in its last seven league games, after starting the campaign without a victory in its first five, lifting the side up to fourth place.

Leeds, promoted from the Championship last season, has now lost five of its last six games and has dropped into the relegation zone.

Agencies Via Xinhua