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In the summer transfer window, Eberechi Eze snubbed Tottenham Hotspur to sign for Arsenal - and he hasn't looked back since - scoring a brilliant hat-trick in the North London Derby.
Thomas Frank aimed a cheeky dig at Eberechi Eze ahead of the North London Derby, but the Tottenham Hotspur boss was left with egg on his face when the Arsenal star netted a hat-trick.
Eze, who snubbed the Lilywhites to join the Gunners at the end of the summer transfer window, showed Frank exactly what his side missed out on. The 27-year-old midfielder fired Mikel Arteta's side to victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday evening, scoring two goals in quick succession before the break.
He later on completed his hat-trick with a quarter of an hour to spare. Speaking to reporters at Hotspur Way on Friday, the Dane was asked about Eze's controversial move to the Emirates Stadium.
The England international had been heavily linked with a move to Tottenham, and he looked set to join. Then, at the 11th hour, Arsenal swooped in and secured his signature - paying Crystal Palace an eye-watering £67.5million. With a straight face, Frank said: "Who's Eze?"
After a brief awkward silence, the Spurs boss broke the ice and added: "Very good player. He plays for Arsenal - a team we want to beat on Sunday."
Frank's remark has come back to bite him, now, with Eze leading Arsenal to a routine victory against Tottenham. It wasn't the first time that the Dane had spoken about the Englishman.
Back in August, he was pressed on Spurs' misfortune in the summer transfer window, having first missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White and then Eze. Frank said: "In general, of course, you know I don't speak about specific players unless they are at our fantastic club, and I'm more than happy to speak about all our players.
"So that's one thing. Secondly, and there's been a lot of rumours linking us with a lot of players. Also players where I think; 'Oh, he's been linked with us? Interesting'.
"But a lot of times where it's definitely nothing in it, that's part of the business we talked about before. There must be someone out there that thinks it's good fun to put the rumours out there.
"But anyway, there'll be a lot of links. There has been a lot of links. There'll a lot of links in the future."
Taking aim at Eze, Frank went on: "And just to generalise that, to make it very, very clear, I don't want any players that don't want to come to the club. Who don't want to come to the club and wear this fantastic badge - we don't want them here.
"I think that's very clear, and also pretty sure that the fans will feel the same if they don't want to put the fantastic shirt over their head. Play for the badge, play for the club. Really enjoy it.
"No problem, then we don't want them there. I think that's a key message..."
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