Eze adds aura in Arsenal side full of quality, says Arteta after the midfielder’s hat-trick against Tottenham.
Eberechi Eze adds an ‘aura’ to Arsenal, says delighted Mikel Arteta.
After Eberechi Eze scored his first professional hat-trick to torment Tottenham and move Arsenal six points clear at the top of the Premier League, Mikel Arteta praised Eze for giving the Arsenal club a “aura.”
Eze was on the verge of joining Spurs from Crystal Palace in the summer, but their opponents from north London outclassed them. After Leandro Trossard started the score, the England international made them pay.
It was 2-0 at the break thanks to a captivating dribble and finish, and 36 seconds after the restart, Eze increased his total. After Richarlison’s excellent consolation goal for a Tottenham team that had little ambition throughout and scored 0.07 anticipated goals, he completed the scoring.
“Things happen for a reason,” said the Arsenal manager, whose side recorded three successive runners-up finishes before Eze’s signing for £67.5m in the summer. “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.
“When a player has such a talent, and his desire is at that level, then these things happen. And he fully deserves it. I’m so happy for him, because since the day that he came, he brought something else to the team.
“So it’s a joy, it’s an aura that this team needed and hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence, to him and the team, that at any moment he can win us a game. And that’s the ability that he has and he certainly needs to fulfil that talent.”
Eze, who had scored only twice in 15 previous appearances since his move to Arsenal having been rejected by them as a teenager, said: “It is special. Words can’t explain this one today. That’s what I prayed for: a hat-trick and I got it. I’m grateful to God. God gave it to me, that’s faith. All my family is here and that makes it even more special for me. ”