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Eze hat trick leads Arsenal to 4-1 win over Tottenham
Updated ,first published
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 inside a minute of the second half by slotting in a left-footed finish.
Eze completed his first senior hat trick — 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, which had seen its two biggest title rivals — Manchester City and Liverpool — lose on Saturday.
“It is special,” Eze said. “Words can’t explain this.”
Now it’s Chelsea which is the closest challenger in second place. After 12 games, however, Arsenal is a big favourite to win its first top-flight 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 about 40 metres to make it 3-1 at the time.
Eze made sure there would be no comeback, three months to the day after joining his boyhood club from Crystal Palace for a reported initial fee of $120 million (AUD). Earlier in the transfer window, he was reportedly in talks with Tottenham.
Asked if he might have been wearing the white of Spurs on Sunday, Eze said: “Let’s not speak about that.”
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario apologised to the team’s supporters for Spurs’ meek performance.
“As a collective, we didn’t fight,” Vicario said.
Rogers double helps Aston Villa beat Leeds 2-1
Morgan Rogers scored twice - including a stunning winner from a free kick - as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Leeds 2-1 in the Premier League on Sunday.
The playmaker has just come back from international duty with England, where he is currently keeping Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham out of the starting team.
Rogers showed exactly why against Leeds, clipping in a finish from Donyell Malen’s cross for the equaliser in the 48th minute before demonstrating wonderful technique to whip a free kick over the defensive wall and into the net in the 75th.
Leeds took the lead at a highly charged Elland Road when Lukas Nmecha bundled in 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 Emi Martinez was impeded in the build-up but the goal was allowed.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin thought he’d equalised for Leeds two minutes after Rogers’ second goal but it was ruled out for handball.
It was Villa’s sixth win in the last seven league games, after starting the campaign without a victory in the team’s first five games. Villa moved up to fourth place.
Promoted Leeds has now lost five of its last six games and has dropped into the relegation zone.
Later, Arsenal hosts Tottenham in the north London derby and will look to stretch its lead to six points over second-placed Chelsea. Manchester City is a point further back in third.
AP