Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
How many times, in all those years ‘away’, after he was released by Arsenal at the age of 13, must Eberechi Eze have dreamed of a day like yesterday? An old Tweet resurfaced in the wake of his North London derby hat-trick, sent in April 2015, over 10 years ago:
He did. They did. LOL, indeed. This was then a young man who had belief in himself, and over the course of his journey from QPR, to Wycombe Wanderers on loan, and crucially Crystal Palace where he developed into the player that Arsenal brought back, he manifested his destiny in a way you rarely see play out the way it did yesterday.
In the second minute, he played the most delicate pass to Declan Rice whose shot cannoned off the goalkeeper, then a defender, and just wide. That moment of quality might have broken the game open early, instead we saw Sp*rs sit deep with a back five, and 11 men behind the ball at pretty much all times. That was clearly their plan, to frustrate us with a low block, and try and nick something up the other end.
The issue was they never got near the other end. One part of the plan was working fine, until it wasn’t, but they had nothing to offer in attack. Bukayo Saka had a free kick he put over the bar, a second one from a similar position required a save from Vicario. We weren’t making a load of clear cut chances, but we were dominating the game.
Mikel Merino up front spent a lot of time deep and out towards the right, which had to be tactical. I think he’s sort of like 6’3 decoy in some ways. Their centre-halves didn’t know where he was going to be, certainly not in the areas they expect a centre-forward to cause them problems, and the Spaniard drifting away from them into midfield space helped bring about the opener. His pass for Leandro Trossard was superb, the run from the Belgian was as smart as you expect from him right now, and even if there was a touch of good fortune in terms of how the ball went in, Arsenal were rewarded for the endeavour and it was 1-0.
Down the right hand side, we had Tottenham on toast. The second goal came when Trossard combined with Saka and the preposterously brilliant Jurrien Timber (another day we’d be talking a lot more about him, but, you know), whose cross was headed away. Declan Rice’s reaction times were samurai-like yesterday, he played it first time to Eze who took a couple of touches then whacked a shot on the jump which flew into the net despite a small touch from the keeper.
I know there’s discussion about whether or not offside was an issue with players in Vicario’s line of sight. There’s probably a case to be made, but after the way the Liverpool goal was disallowed a couple of weeks ago, PGMOL have let a couple of these slide in recent weeks. Us, being the beneficiaries of another team’s misfortune? I’ll take it. For too long we’ve been the ones too often diddled by Howard Webb and his motley crew, so a very small thing like is overdue as far as I’m concerned.
So 2-0 at the break and in a good position. They had to change something, given their entire game plan had gone out the window like a stockbroker on Wall St in October 1929. Xavi Simons came on, and I guess the chat would have been for them to keep it tight, try get a goal and then see what happens. Instead, we swarmed them down the right again. Saka won it, Timber took it on, played it to Eze, and the finish with his left foot made it 3-0 a little over 30 seconds into the restart.
I really like this finish, he has to make a decision, adjust his body and get a shot off with his ‘wrong’ foot as the ball was bobbling a bit in front of him, and he was deadly with it. There’s the difference between good and great. That ability to do things in the split-second is what makes that goal, and it basically killed the game as a contest – if it even was one at that stage. Arsenal were so on top, and they had so little of the ball in our half, the outcome felt inevitable.
They did get one back which took the wind out of the sails just a little bit. On a morning like this, I can grudgingly acknowledge the quality of Richarlison’s first time finish after Martin Zubimendi was uncharacteristically caught in possession. On another day it’s a goal people would have talked about for a long time, but remember, this is Sp*rs. They have a recent history of scoring very good goals in this fixture that simply don’t matter, and this was another one of those. A Lamela special, if you will. A blot on the copybook, perhaps, but ultimately insignificant.
There was a 3-2 at home a couple of seasons ago I really didn’t want any repeat of, but despite a bit more possession they couldn’t build on that goal. And in the end, it always felt like this was Eze’s day. Even with two goals it would have been, but you felt like there was more to come. It began with Spurs lumping the ball aimlessly forward, Piero Hincapie won a towering header, Rice clipped it forward, Merino fed Trossard who in turn played it to Eze on the edge of the box. He waited until one of their players slid himself into oblivion, then curled home a brilliant shot for his hat-trick and to make it 4-1.
He said afterwards he’d prayed for that, and we know he’s a man of real faith. It is hugely important to him, and I’m not going to downplay that at all. But in his press conference afterwards, Mikel 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, and he wanted to do extra practice. And he was asking me questions about this and that. And when a player has such a talent, and his desire is at that level, then these things happen. And he fully deserves it.
This is a player of such quality already, and his mindset is to eschew time off to learn and do better. He might even have had a fourth goal, drawing another good save from Vicario, but I’m sure he’ll have been absolutely delighted with the hat-trick. The first Arsenal player to do that in the derby since Alan Sunderland in 1978. When you consider the calibre of players we’ve had in that period of time, it makes you realise how rare and how special yesterday was, and it’s something we should all take a minute to enjoy properly.
This fixture comes with its own stresses, more than any other game in the calendar for me, and to win it, however you win it, is always great. To see a story some might say is romantic play out in that manner, is something else though. And it is romantic, no question. A boyhood Arsenal fan released by the club who returns to score a hat-trick against the big local rivals, it’s comic book stuff. Eze said afterwards:
It’s crazy. It’s a special day for me, my family, and I’m happy to help the team to win. It’s so special, I can only thank God for it. For the opportunity to be here, be working and applying myself every day – it’s a special day in my life.
But make no mistake this was something that goes beyond comic book. This was about a young man who faced the ultimate disappointment, but who always believed in himself and through his hard work, dedication, professionalism, and talent, came back to show the world he was gonna make it. If Eberechi Eze returning to the club that let him go was a story that came full circle, yesterday was the day that circle was gilded and adorned. The match-ball was his, and deservedly so.
It has felt since the day he arrived that there was more to come from him, and yesterday is hopefully the start of that. A special day for him, as he said. A great day for Arsenal fans. A brilliant one for the team and for Mikel Arteta, especially in the context of the other results this weekend. And a thoroughly miserable one for Sp*rs. What more could you really ask for?
Right, I’ll leave it there this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later on, we’re recording around 10am. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. The pod should be out around noon.
For now, have a good one.
