Whenever a team is in need of a result, all they need to do is face Tottenham Hotspur, and it seems like Spurs are all too willing to write a fitting prescription for whatever a particular Premier League side ails. In this case, Arsenal were not struggling going into the North London Derby and were obvious favorites as the No. 1 team in the Premier League, yet Spurs still helped them solve an issue regarding summer transfer Eberechi Eze, according to Mikel Arteta himself.
Eze, of course, was wanted badly by Spurs before, at the last second, he spurned them to join their North London rivals. In truth, Tottenham walked away with the better end of the deal. They signed Xavi Simons in the attacking midfield for less money - a better, younger player, at that. But Eze reared his head after a very quiet start to life at the Emirates, bagging an unforgettable hat trick in the first - and more embarrassing - of the now two 4-1 losses to Arsenal this Premier League campaign.
Even though Eze had been similarly quiet following his three-goal outburst against the club he once flirted with this summer, he was, once again, the star of the show for Arsenal in the 4-1 win over Spurs on Sunday, scoring two more goals to the good.
Mikel Arteta is ready to bring the best out of Eberechi Eze
After the game, via Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told reporters that he now understands how to utilize Eze best, evidently coming to a solid conclusion after watching Eze shine against Spurs yet again. Arteta even admitted that Eze had a fire within him going into the game because of how Arteta had snubbed him from the lineup.
Arteta said, “You could see that Eze wanted to prove something. He was upset even with me, because I didn't play him the other day from the beginning…and some of the decisions that I made. I have started to understand how we're going to get the best out of him now”.
Arsenal signed Eze with the intention of making him part of a multi-faceted and flexible attack, given his ability to score goals and playmake from a central position or on the wings. With Martin Odegaard struggling again this season, Eez's emergence down the stretch of the season as a threat in the Premier League and Champions League could potentially deliver both prestigious titles to a club still bereft of them over the past decades.
And it would be a true force of irony for Tottenham to have played an unwitting role in delivering such a difference-maker into the hands of Arsenal. Eze was one of the best players in the Premier League last season as the central figure for Crystal Palace, and in each of these games against Spurs, he has shown that same verve and quality with his boldness and ambition in these games to personally embarrass Spurs.
Perhaps it is that psychological factor that Arteta has helped bring out of Eze, and now he recognizes it from this latest convincing victory over a, well, overmatched Tottenham. Spurs are reeling like never before, and, of course, it is again Eze and Arsenal who wag their fingers in the open, festering wound.