Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham: ‘Special day’ for Eberechi Eze – but can anyone challenge Arsenal for the title?

What a day it has been for childhood Arsenal fan Eze.

Before the match, Tottenham coach Thomas Frank joked, “Who?” When asked how close Eze was to becoming a Tottenham player in the summer. Sure enough, those words came back to haunt him.

Scoring his first hat-trick with the first team is a huge milestone in itself, not to mention the first hat-trick in the history of the North London Derby in the Premier League.

Eze signed for Arsenal in a £67m deal and began establishing himself as one of the first names on manager Mikel Arteta’s squad list.

When he signed for Arsenal, there were questions about where he would fit into the team, but after captain Odegaard was injured, Eze grabbed his chance with both hands.

The 27-year-old has taken time to settle in as he has become accustomed to a different role in the Arsenal team to the one he was used to at Crystal Palace, but he is already starting to deliver big moments.

He provided an excellent assist for Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time goal against City, scored the winner against Palace and now has a first senior hat-trick against rivals Tottenham.

Eze offers something different to the rest of Arsenal’s strikers, and his unpredictability adds another advantage to the Arsenal attacking line.

The Gunners have two more big games to play, with matches against Bayern Munich and Chelsea, but Eze will relish the challenge given the level he is at now.

Arteta said: “This is him. He had two days off after the England camp and after the first day he wanted to train.”

“He wanted to come back and get better and ask questions. When you have that kind of talent and that intelligence and then you add that desire to be better and train, those things happen.”

“When I spoke to Thomas Tuchel (about him) I said how good is he? He said to me one of the best I’ve seen. I rank him as one of the best players in terms of talent. If we now add his work rate, his willingness to play for this team and the joy I feel when he is the building, we have a special player there.”

No English player has been involved in scoring more goals than Eze in 2025 in the Premier League. Only Erling Haaland (25), Mohamed Salah (23), Brian Mbeumo (21) and Antoine Semenyu (18) have been involved in more goals in the Premier League than Arsenal’s number 10 (18 – 10 goals and eight assists).

Former Crystal Palace striker Clinton Morrison told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I know how important this move from Crystal Palace was for him and what a performance he put in. He’s the best player on the pitch.”

“This is where his Arsenal career begins.”