Arsenal star Eberechi Eze has thoroughly enjoyed turning the tables on Manchester City supporters after a viral meme mocking the Gunners as 'bottlers' spectacularly backfired. The north London club secured their first Premier League title in 22 years on Tuesday, ending a run of three consecutive second-place finishes.
City's failure to beat Bournemouth confirmed Mikel Arteta's side as champions ahead of the final day of the season on Sunday, sparking wild celebrations at the Emirates Stadium that lasted into the early hours. Eze was among the players seen at the ground around 5am on Wednesday, sharing the historic moment with fans who had waited decades for such a triumph.
The victory was particularly sweet for Arsenal given the frequent accusations that they lacked the mental strength to get over the line. Earlier in the season, a City fan named Tal Rehman went viral after being shown live on Sky Sports pretending to drink from an Arsenal-branded bottle, a clear dig at the 'bottle job' narrative. However, the joke quickly backfired when Rehman himself became a meme, depicted as a sky-blue plastic bottle.
Eze, speaking to TNT Sports, could barely contain his laughter as he described the image. "Do you know what makes it so funny? It's the top of his head," he said. "It's the way the bottle is attached to the top of his head. He knows it's all love, man. I don't mean any malice with this but, brother. You could spin the top of the bottle on his head. Where are his legs?!"
After composing himself, Eze added: "Massive love to him because it's all banter and it's all part of the game, all part of football. And I like how he's done it. I don't know his name, I don't know who it is but credit to him."
Eze is not the first Arsenal player to poke fun at City. Bukayo Saka shared a video of Myles Lewis-Skelly holding a bottle of Champagne, with Lewis-Skelly saying "They called us bottlers," before Saka replied: "Now we're holding the bottles." Defender Piero Hincapie was also shown drinking from the same kind of Arsenal-branded bottle during the title celebrations, while Gabriel Magalhaes shared the meme of the City fan on his Instagram stories.
Rehman himself has attempted to brush off the ridicule. "First and foremost, congratulations to Arsenal," he told Sky Sports. "You have won the league. Well done. It's killing me to say it but there is no bitterness in me. My bottle prank, some of you have taken it in a really good way, which is what it was about. [It was] banter. Those of you who have taken it in a negative way need to try to look inside yourselves and understand the word 'banter'. They [the Arsenal players] are only getting me back because I am in their heads rent-free. That image will be there for God knows how long. I think I motivated them and I apologise to anyone who didn't want Arsenal to win the league."
