Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze stole the spotlight with a superb hat-trick in the Premier League leaders’ demolition of Tottenham.
Troubled champions Liverpool’s wretched season hit a new low in a loss to Nottingham Forest, while Chelsea are emerging as Arsenal’s main rivals.
AFP Sport looks at three talking points from the weekend’s action:
Arsenal have title momentum
Six points clear at the top, unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions and buoyed by a 4-1 rout of Tottenham, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal will never have a better chance to finally end their Premier League title drought.
The Gunners haven’t been crowned English champions since 2004 and three successive runners-up finishes had raised doubts about Arteta’s ability to end that barren run.
Finishing 10 points behind Liverpool last season was especially painful and the champions’ massive summer spending spree only increased the belief that Arsenal were destined to miss out again.
A 1-0 defeat at Liverpool in August was hugely frustrating for Arteta, but the Spaniard kept faith with his injury-hit team and has been rewarded with a blistering surge.
After their 10-game winning streak was halted in a 2-2 draw at Sunderland before the international break, the Gunners got back on track thanks to Eze’s hat-trick in the rout of hapless Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium.
It was the perfect preparation for a huge week featuring a Champions League visit from Bayern Munich and a trip to second-placed Chelsea next weekend.
“We have really good momentum but you can see how difficult every game in the Premier League is. It’s a long run, let’s go game by game. Let’s enjoy tonight, then we have Bayern here and Chelsea away. We have a tough week,” Arteta said.
Woeful Liverpool hit new depths
Liverpool’s plunge down the table shows no sign of stopping after a Nottingham Forest side that began the weekend in the relegation zone cruised to a 3-0 victory at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s struggle to find the right blend from his expensively assembled squad overhaul in the transfer market goes on as Liverpool lost back-to-back league games by a three-goal margin for the first time since 1965.
Alexander Isak’s woeful form embodies the issue that Slot faces.
Signed for a British transfer record £125 million nearly three months ago, Isak is yet to score a league goal for the Reds.
A lack of pre-season training and an injury setback have hampered the Swedish striker, who was hauled off by Slot after an ineffectual 68 minutes against Forest.
He set an unwanted record by becoming the first Liverpool player in Premier League history to end on the losing side in each of his first four starts.
Reds captain Virgil van Dijk said the players are letting their manager down, but Slot believes he should shoulder responsibility for a run that has seen Liverpool slip into the bottom half of the table.
“I can never come up with enough excuses to have the results we have,” Slot said. “That is far from good enough and I’m responsible for that.”
Can Chelsea mount a challenge?
Manchester City’s defeat at Newcastle on Saturday, coupled with Chelsea’s fifth win in six league games — a 2-0 success at Burnley — propelled the Blues into second place.
A six-point gap to Arsenal could be halved next weekend when the Gunners have to travel to Stamford Bridge in a top-of-the-table clash.
The exertions of winning the Club World Cup in the gruelling July heat of the United States when their title rivals were resting could yet catch up with Enzo Maresca’s men.
But Chelsea’s approach to hoarding young talent in successive transfer windows is beginning to bear fruit.
Maresca could afford the luxury of leaving club record signing Moises Caicedo and Brazilian wonder-kid Estevao on the bench for a comfortable victory at Turf Moor, with one eye on a big week ahead, which also includes a Champions League clash with Barcelona.
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