EDDIE NKETIAH ended his nine-match goal drought in spectacular style to keep unbeaten Arsenal snapping at the heels of League leaders Spurs.
The recently capped England striker bagged the first Premier League hat-trick of his career to leave Blades boss Paul Heckingbottom teetering on the brink of the sack.
And this Emirates stroll in the park means that the Gunners can now definitely discount Sheffield United as one of their title rivals.
Blades defender Auston Trusty had laughably claimed that his team should be aiming to be Champions despite managing just one point from their opening nine games.
But this defeat means that even if they were to win all their remaining fixtures they can still only finish the season with 78 points, and that won’t be enough to finish top of the pile.
But in all seriousness, the gulf between these teams is so great that it is hard to believe that they are even playing the same game.
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The last time United were a Premier League team, it took them until January to win their first match.
The way this lot are going, the wait could be even longer.
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Trusty had claimed that he might be able to offer Heckingbottom some useful inside information on Arsenal following his brief time at the club.
But considering the American defender didn’t even make Mikel Arteta’s subs’ bench before he was sold last summer, it was a wonder he even knew where the Emirates was.
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He certainly looked completely lost when Nketiah fired the Gunners into a 28th minute lead which they were never going to surrender.
Arteta had only just called his players over for a touchline rollocking following their lethargic start to a game which they clearly thought they could win at walking pace.
And the manager’s words had an almost instant effect as Declan Rice’s precise through ball allowed Nketiah to turn Trusty and coolly slot home past Wes Foderingham.
It was another massive kick in the teeth for the visitors, who hadn’t looked like a team who were resigned to their fate up to that point.
But the minute they conceded they simply collapsed like a pack of cards and it is that lack of fight which is surely going to do for Heckingbottom.
The under pressure boss had set his team up to squeeze the play into a narrow strip 20 metres either side of the halfway line and challenge Arsenal to tiptoe their way through the traffic.
And it was a tactic which looked like it might just work until Trusty switched off to give Nketiah the freedom of the box.
The young striker might have won his first senior England cap earlier this month, but has still to convince many Arsenal fans that he can be a big-time player for a club with serious title ambitions.
But with Gabriel Jesus ruled out for the next couple of weeks after pinging a hamstring in Sevilla on Tuesday, Nketiah now has the chance to prove that he can be more than just a back-up player.
And how he grabbed that opportunity with a devastating demonstration of his finishing skills which had the watching Jesus up and applauding from his executive box.
It was back in December 2021 that Nketiah scored three in a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Sunderland to convince Arteta that he deserved a new long-term contract at a time when his future was still up in the air.
But this hat-trick will mean so much to the 24-year-old graduate of the club’s Hale End academy.
Arteta had told his players that there could be no room for complacency against the rock bottom Blades.
But they clearly weren’t listening to his warning as they displayed an alarming lack of urgency and struggled to get out of second gear.
They weren’t helped by the Emirates atmosphere, which had been red hot for their last home game against Manchester City but was lukewarm at best this time.
But all that changed as soon as Nketiah broke the deadlock and suddenly the supporters were up on their feet and getting excited again.
Gabriel Martinelli tested Foderingham’s reflexes with a powerful shot just before the interval but any ideas the visitors might have held of a second-half comeback were shattered within five minutes of the restart.
Bukayo Saka, wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of the rested Martin Odegaard, swung over a corner which Foderingham could only push tamely into the path of the lurking Nketiah.
Two yards out and with the goal at his mercy, there was no way he was going to pass up on that opportunity.
But if that one was as straightforward a tap-in, there was nothing easy about his 58th minute hat-trick goal.
Receiving the ball from Emile Smith Rowe with his back to goal and 25 yards out, he was allowed to turn unchallenged once again before leathering an absolute beauty into the top corner.
He could have had a fourth when substitute Fabio Vieira was hacked down in the area by Blades skipper Oliver Norwood in the 87th minute.
The fans certainly wanted Nketiah to take the penalty but Vieira was determined to cash in on his own work and stepped up to send Foderingham the wrong way from the spot.
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And still Arsenal weren’t finished and deep into stoppage time Takehrio Tomiyasu made it five to condemn dismal United to a sixth straight defeat.
Game over for Arsenal and game almost certainly game up for Heckingbottom.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
