Jamie Carragher held his hands up on Sunday night after watching Arsenal’s dazzling new star Eberechi Eze tear Tottenham apart in a north London derby demolition that will live long in the memory.
Eze walked into his first derby and walked out with history. A blistering hat trick the first in this fiery fixture since the late seventies sent the Emirates into raptures as Mikel Arteta’s side crushed a flat and frightened Spurs by four goals to one.
It was the kind of performance that flips careers and rewrites narratives. Only a few months ago Eze had seemed destined to swap Crystal Palace for Tottenham. Instead Arsenal swooped with a sixty million pound move that left Spurs stunned and sparked mutterings that the Gunners had spent big on a squad player rather than a superstar.
Carragher was one of the voices who shrugged at the signing in the summer. But after watching Eze dance through Spurs he was quick to admit he had got it badly wrong. Speaking on Sky he said he had not believed the forward would transform Arsenal’s title charge and thought most of the club’s business was about depth not stardust. He even insisted that had Kai Havertz been fully fit the German would have kept the central spot.
But the derby changed everything. Carragher said he had underestimated Eze completely and apologised for branding the signing anything less than decisive. He hailed the forward as a potential title winner and accepted that his summer verdict now looks laughable.
Eze has stepped into the gap left by Havertz who is still battling back from early season surgery and has made the role his own. Seven straight starts and six league goals in ten matches tell their own story. His confidence is soaring and his swagger is impossible to miss.
Yet the man himself stayed humble after the final whistle. Eze admitted he had prayed to score in his first derby but never imagined three. He called it a special day for him and his family and said even his dreams had never stretched this far.
Arteta though insisted the haul could have been even bigger. The Arsenal boss said Eze could easily have scored four or five and praised the forward’s ability to create moments that tear defences apart. He described him as a big player capable of magic and suggested this is only the beginning.
Arsenal fans may well believe him. Spurs will certainly fear he is right.
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