Too Eze: Midfield star's hat trick helps Arsenal beat Spurs and take 6-point lead in Premier League

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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 just 23 seconds into 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 favorite 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 around 45 yards (meters) 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 60 million pounds ($80 million). 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.”

Eze is getting a run in central midfield because of an injury to Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard and is slowly growing into the role.

“He’s a big player who can create magic moments which unbalance a team,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario apologized to the team's supporters for Spurs' meek performance, which came after manager Thomas Frank opted to deploy a five-man defense — without any success.

“As a collective, we didn't fight,” Vicario said.

Frank said it was a "hard defeat to take," adding: “It’s extremely painful to stand here after an extremely bad performance — against the worst team we could put a bad performance in against. It was the perfect storm."

Aston Villa playmaker Morgan Rogers has just returned from international with England, where he is currently keeping Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham out of the starting team.

He showed exactly why against Leeds.

Rogers clipped in a finish from Donyell Malen’s cross for the equalizer in the 48th before demonstrating wonderful technique to whip a free kick over the defensive wall and into the net in the 75th to seal a 2-1 comeback win for Villa.

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 goalline 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 equalized 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.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer