Eberechi Eze came close to writing his name into the history books with a remarkably niche stat, but he fell just short of levelling a fellow Arsenal forward.
Surprisingly enough, only once before in Premier League history has a player scored hat-tricks in home and away matches against the same opponent in the same season.
Eze famously scored three goals in his first appearance in the North London derby, when Arsenal thrashed Spurs 4-1, and he added another two goals to his tally in the reverse fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
He might have gone on to score a second hat-trick against Spurs, who famously tried to sign him in the summer, but Mikel Arteta substituted him for club captain Martin Odegaard midway through the second half.
The record for the most goals against one opponent in the same season stands at six, shared between six players.
Sergio Aguero against Newcastle United in 2015-16, Jermain Defoe against Wigan Athletic in 2009-10, Thierry Henry against Leeds United in 2003-04, Alan Shearer against Sheffield Wednesday in 1999-00 and Andy Cole against Ipswich in 1994-95 are part of that club.
But none of them split the goals evenly with three in both games.
Aguero scored five and one against the Magpies, Defoe scored five in a famous 9-1 thrashing of the Latics with one in the lesser-remembered away game, while Cole got five in Manchester United’s 9-0 thrashing of Ipswich Town and another at Portman Road. It was the same ratio for Shearer against Sheffield Wednesday at the turn of the century.
Arsenal icon Henry got four and two against Leeds in their relegation season.
You might have thought Luis Suarez against Norwich City would be the one, but you’d be wrong. The Uruguayan wreaked his reign of terror on the Canaries across multiple seasons. He scored back-to-back hat-tricks against them in 2012, but across different seasons, and later notched four in the 2013-14 campaign.
Suarez scored against Norwich in five successive Premier League outings, but never quite reached the six-goal club.
The only player in Premier League history to score a pair of hat-tricks against the same team in one season is Emmanuel Adebayor against Derby County in 2007-08.
Emmanuel Adebayor’s unique record
Derby County’s 2007-08 campaign was one for the history books in a number of ways they’d really rather forget.
The hopeless Rams still hold the record for the fewest points in a Premier League season, managing just one win and a brutal goal difference of -69.
They’re also the only team to concede two hat-tricks to the same player in one campaign.
The Togolese international stuck three past poor Stephen Bywater as Arsene Wenger’s Gunners produced a stylish 5-0 mauling early on that year.
Wenger went with Robin van Persie for the return match at Pride Park, but he brought Adebayor off the bench at half-time – and the striker proceeded to score three goals in the second half of a 6-2 away win.
Surprisingly enough, only two other players scored a hat-trick against Derby that season – Portsmouth’s Benjani Mwaruwari and Chelsea’s Frank Lampard.
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