Arsenal player ratings: Nketiah 10/10 for hat trick vs. Sheff United - ESPN

Eddie Nketiah struck his first Premier League hat trick in exquisite style as Arsenal maintained the pressure on North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the top of the table with a crushing 5-0 victory over winless Sheffield United.

The Arsenal academy graduate controlled the ball and calmly slotted it past Wes Foderingham to open the scoring just shy of the half-hour mark, before smashing a stunning second into the roof of the net shortly after the restart.

And the best was still to come as the forward picked up Emile Smith Rowe's pass and fired an unstoppable 25-yard piledriver beyond the helpless Foderingham, who could only watch the ball nestle into the top corner.

Arsenal weren't finished and there was still time for Fabio Vieira to add a fourth from the penalty spot, before right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu made it a fantastic five in the dying seconds to cap a breathtaking afternoon at the Emirates.

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There aren't enough superlatives to describe that Nketiah display. The unplayable forward blew away the Blades with a phenomenal individual performance that had a little bit of everything.

Despite their dominance, Arsenal looked sluggish for 25 minutes or so as Mikel Arteta's men struggled to find their usual creative spark. By the final whistle though, their biggest disappointment will have been that they didn't score even more.

8 — Arsenal will need to rotate their best players if they are to go all the way this time around and Arteta did just that with some smart changes, though Nketiah's introduction was enforced by Gabriel Jesus' injury. However, nobody will be more delighted for the striker than the Arsenal boss who has continued to back him.

GK David Raya, 8 -- Co