Mikel Arteta credited Eberechi Eze for adding an “aura” to the Arsenal team after he scored the first hat-trick of his career to haunt Tottenham and send Arsenal six points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Eze was close to joining Spurs from Crystal Palace in the summer before they were gazumped by their north London rivals and the England international made them pay after Leandro Trossard had opened the scoring.
A mesmerising dribble and finish made it 2-0 at half-time before Eze doubled his tally 36 seconds after the restart. He rounded off the scoring following Richarlison’s fine consolation strike for a Tottenham side that showed little ambition throughout and recorded 0.07 expected goals.
“Things happen for a reason,” said the Arsenal manager, whose side recorded three successive runners-up finishes before Eze’s signing for £67.5m in the summer. “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.”
Eze, who had scored only twice in 15 previous appearances since his move to Arsenal having been rejected by them as a teenager, said: “It is special. Words can’t explain this one today. That’s what I prayed for: a hat-trick and I got it. I’m grateful to God. God gave it to me, that’s faith. All my family is here and that makes it even more special for me. ”
Tottenham lined up with a five-man defence but that was abandoned at half-time by Thomas Frank and his side ended up having only four touches in Arsenal’s penalty area.
“It was hugely disappointing that we didn’t perform better against Arsenal, our biggest rival. I can only apologise to the fans for that,” said the Spurs manager. “We tried to come here and be aggressive and press high and in spells go after them. We were not good enough to get out of the situation.”
