FA PREMIERLEAGUE 

ARSENAL 4 (Trossard 36, Eze 41 46 76)

SPURS 1 (Richarlison 55)

EBERICHI Eze – who came a whisker from signing for Tottenham in the summer – blasted in a brilliant hat-trick for the Gunners in the north London derby.

Arsenal scored four open play and in truth it could have been a lot more.

The old adage for a mismatch like this is ‘men against boys’.

But this was more men against amoebas.

Despite a brief rally in the second half after a superb long range shot from Richarlison caught David Raya way off his line, Spurs barely got close to the Arsenal goal.

This was surely the feeblest Tottenham outfit to come to Arsenal in decades – and somehow they were in fifth place going into the weekend’s fixtures.

After Eze curled in his second just after the restart, fans were checking their phones to check what is the biggest Gunners’ win against their north London rivals.

It’s 6-0 for those asking, in 1938.

The real telling stat is that Eze is the first Arsenal player to score three in the derby since Alan Sunderland in 1978.

After the match, Arteta said: “I think individually the players were exceptional from minute one.

“They were super dominant in almost every phase of the play. So, yeah, a day to remember.”

Leandro Trossard – who was again excellent and deserves his starting position on form alone – settled the nerves after Mikel Merino picked out his perfectly timed run.

He beat the offside trap and calmly controlled the looping through ball, hit on the spin, his shot deflected past Vicario.

Had it not been for the Eze hat trick, Trossard would probably have won the man of the match.

And Arteta praised him for being “so aggressive with and without the ball”, adding when asked about his potential exit in the summer: “No chance – it was forbidden for him to leave.”

Arsenal had been completely dominant in the first half with Spurs struggling to get the ball into their half let alone the area.

But it’s the derby and the nerves were still jangling.

Eze relieved all pressure by controlling a first time pass from Declan Rice and eking out his chance with three expert touches in the box.

He smashed it into the far corner causing an explosion in the stadium.

Fans – many had been drinking most of the day before the rare 4.30pm derby kick off time – went gaga, sprawling into the aisles and collapsing onto each other on the steps.

Many of them would have missed Eze’s second, gracefully stroked in from inside the D shortly after the second half began.

At that point it looked like Arsenal were going to hit them for six or seven.

But seeds of doubt were briefly sown when Richarlison spied Raya way off his line and took aim from 40 yards.

The Arsenal keeper – who often pushes up the pitch in games like this when he has little to do – scrambled back but the strike hard and perfectly angled.

It had David Bentley vibes about it, and there was just a smidgen of anxiety about what would happen if the visitors got a second.

The spectacular goal seemed to reboot Tottenham and they rallied for ten minutes.

But the brutal reality was that the Spurs players and fans – living out their own personal nightmare – knew they had no real chance of a come back.

Eze completed his fairytale hattrick with another calm and clinical finish, expertly dispatched into the corner.

He would have had a fourth but for a superb save later on.

Arteta said: “I’m so happy for him because it’s the day that he came, he brought something else to the team.

“It’s a joy, it’s an aura that this team needed, and hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence in him and the team, that at any moment he can win us a game.”

Arsenal had made an aggressive start and there was an electric atmosphere as they bossed the opening exchanges.

Declan Rice – again imperious – thundered a volley on the spin from an Eze scooped pass that was powerfully hit but straight at Vicario.

Jurien Timber could have done better from resulting corner, his Bould-style back header went high over.

Then Merino had a powerful shot saved.

Saka took a high ball down over his shoulder with Bergkamp-esque control drawing gasps from the stadium before winning a free kick.

With everyone expecting a cross, he shot but it flew over the top corner.

The Arsenal captain tried the same trick about 10 minutes later, this time the shot arrowed just over the line of Gunners trying to flick a header in – forcing a flying stop from Vicario.

Tottenham rode out the early storm and despite not getting near the Arsenal goal seemed to be creeping ever so slightly back into the game.

Despite not having a real test today, Piero Hincapie – in for the injured Gabriel – looks like another exceptional addition to this formidable Arsenal backline.

He played centre back next to the ever-reliable William Saliba and won every header he had to make.

At 6ft1 he is another towering beast of a defender who seems capable of playing at the same level of the two first choice centre backs.

Jurien Timber – surely the best right back in the world – and Ricardo Calafiori – who looks super fit compared to last season when he was a little sluggish – did not put a foot wrong.

Together they out muscled Spurs lightweight wingers with ease.

The incredible situation Arsenal are in is that the second eleven are as good as the first, and surely this will be the reason they win the title this year.

At the moment, no side in the Premierleague looks anywhere near this season’s standard-setters.

And this weekend’s statement victory against Spurs came after Liverpool’s humiliating collapse at home to Forest and City being downed at St James Park.

Bukayo Saka had a relatively quiet game but teams are so worried about him they send two and sometimes three players to stop his one-twos and calculated runs.

Anytime he gets the ball on the wing it frees up space for others to move into and profit from.

Rice put in a massive shift and looked exhausted in the closing stages, but was not subbed-off despite Arsenal’s dominance.

His fitness will need to be managed, because he is perhaps the only player that is irreplaceable in a big fixture.

Gabi Martinelli was back from injury but did not get any minutes with Noni Madueke chosen ahead of him to replace Trossard.

There are so many reasons to be cheerful, because he looks just as dangerous as he did before his injury.

Arteta said: “We’ve got Noni back on the pitch, which is great, but we’re still missing a lot, a lot of important players, and we’re going to need all of them.

“The good news is we lost big Gabi, which is a massive blow, and Piero [Hincapie] comes in, and I think he was fantastic from the beginning.”

Dowman was also itching to get on and Holloway-raised Ethan Nwaneri got ten minutes at the end.

Merino is obviously more suited to playing in midfield and does not have the positional instinct of a world class striker.

But he did a good job up front tonight, chasing down balls and hurtling about despite being bashed about with some heavy challenges.

Arteta described his role as a “defensive 9”, which is about right – the formation – ever changing throughout the game – could be summarised as 4-6-0.

One happy question for Arteta is does Martin Odegaard get back in the starting line up? Because Eze in a central role is a match winner.

Before the game, there was tribute to former Spurs turned Arsenal defender Willie Young, who coincidentally played alongside Sunderland and was in the 1979 FA Cup winning side.

Arsenal: Raya, Saliba, Hincapie (Mosquera 88), Timber,  Saka, Calafiori (Lewis-Skelly 92), Zubimendi, Rice, Eze, Trossard (Madueke 78), Merino (Nwaneri 88)
Subs not used: Kepa, White, Martinelli, Norgaard, Dowman

Spurs: Vicario, Danso (Simons 70), Palhinha, Richarlison, Udogie, Romero, Kudus (Johnson 78), Spence (Porro 78), Odobert (Sarr 66), Bentacur (Muani 66), van de Ven
Subs not used: Kinsky, Tel, Gray, Bergvall

Attendance: 60,345