Arsenal delivered a superb North London Derby performance at the Emirates, sweeping aside Tottenham 4-1 with a sensational hat-trick from Eberechi Eze. From the opening whistle, the Gunners were brighter, sharper and far more aggressive, setting the tempo for a derby they controlled almost from start to finish.
Arsenal started fast, almost breaking through inside three minutes before forcing their first corner. With Gabriel sidelined, Hincapié stepped in next to Saliba, while Merino continued to lead the line with Gyökeres still unavailable. Madueke and Martinelli returned to the bench after injury, giving Mikel Arteta crucial attacking options if needed.
The early dominance was absolute, with Arsenal holding 74 percent possession by the tenth minute and pinning Spurs back. Tottenham could barely escape their own half and had managed just one pass in the final third compared to Arsenal’s twenty-three. Saka threatened from a free kick on eighteen minutes, skimming just over, before forcing a strong save moments later after Bentancur brought him down and collected the game’s first booking.
Trossard Breaks Through Before Eze Doubles the Lead
The breakthrough came on thirty-six minutes. Leandro Trossard found space, struck low and saw his effort take a deflection off a defender on its way in. The Belgian famously scored the winner in this fixture last season, and he delivered again.
Moments later, the Emirates was on its feet once more. Eberechi Eze drifted inside, shaped his body perfectly, and buried a brilliant finish to make it 2-0, sending Arsenal into half-time with a commanding advantage.
Within seconds of the restart, Eze struck again. A flowing move opened space on the right and the midfielder arrived with precision, calmly slotting home his second and putting Arsenal 3-0 ahead. The Emirates roared, sensing something special.
Spurs Briefly Rally Before Eze Completes His Hat-Trick
Tottenham responded on fifty-five minutes with a spectacular long-range strike from Richarlison, catching Raya off his line and reducing the deficit. The goal lifted Spurs and sparked their best phase of the match, with a prolonged spell of possession that briefly shifted momentum.
But Arsenal regained control, and the defining moment of the derby arrived on seventy-five minutes. Eze completed his hat-trick with another clinical finish, restoring the three-goal cushion and sealing a memorable individual display. The Emirates exploded as he celebrated in front of a very jubilant home crowd.
There were further half-chances at both ends, including another strong save to deny Eze a fourth and some late corners, before tempers flared. Rice and Porro were both booked after a brief confrontation. Four minutes of stoppage time were added, but Arsenal saw out the match professionally.
Full-time at the Emirates: Arsenal 4–1 Tottenham.
A derby masterclass, complete control, and a new hat-trick hero in Eberechi Eze. The Gunners march on in style.
Did you enjoy the match Gooners? I’m still on a high!
Michelle M
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Finally Spurs will always be Spurs. 😂
I was worried about this match but the boys showed they were serious.
6 points gap over second place Chelsea. 7 points gap over Man City.
Let us try and continue the winning streak from now on.
Now unto Bayern on Wednesday. A draw won’t be a bad result against the best team in Europe now.
A shooting masterclass from Eze, but he needs a false-nine like Merino dropping down as a decoy to open up the spaces for him
Trossard is more suited to the defense-unlocking and creative tasks than Eze
I think Eze will thrive if he keeps playing with Merino, because of their interchanging positions and Merino’s ability to play in Odegaard’s position
Eze was the false nine 😊
Merino played that role in the NLD, because he was our highest attacker when we didn’t have the ball and when Raya made long passes to his head
@Gai, I thin Hincapie deserves some credit he stood up to NLD challenge like he has been around for a while. I think he is equally good as CB and LFB. A very good deputy for Gabriel.
I think Calafiori needs to improve his crossing into the box when he overlaps otherwise, he is doing very well. And it would take injury for MLS to bench him.
Arteta made very good signing for our defence.
Eze gradually proving why he was signed
Our defenders have been benefited from Arteta’s tactics, that minimize offside trap risk and utilize intensive high-press
Eze could score a lot of goals this season with his excellent shooting techniques, if he keeps playing with a false-nine who can drag CBs and make enough spaces for Eze
What a great performance. Congrats Arsenal and I am so happy for Eze. Up gunners
Said Eze will have the best game yet in an Arsenal shirt and boy how good was he tonight! Could have scored 5!
Great win and important 3 points to open up a 6 point gap. Chelsea next and foresee an end to end game unlike the super defensive spuds.
What a time to be a Goooner?
Yes, you said it earlier about Eze. What a great day for him to get his shooting boots right.
Well done to him.
Very well played and Eze was brilliant .
Spurs got what they deserved.
Onto the next
Yeah, with the ultra defensive mode, they deserved that. No one will talk of us scoring none set piece goals today.
It begs the question, doesn’t it Kenya. The shakles were off against Spuds?
Well worked Fellas…
What a win!
Tha absence of Gyokeres and Gabriel, meant we deployed a different tactic.
Merino is fantastic as a false nine…Saka and Eze were drifting inside nicely!
If this chemistry develops further, we may not need to depend on Gyokeres!
I can’t stop smiling. We haven’t won anything yet so let’s keep up the momentum, but wow what a weekend
We won the NLD and I will be parading my Arsenal shirt in my local tomorrow with a huge grin on my face, as usual 😊
So when people say winning isn’t everything, how good does this feel
Yes, winning GAMES means a lot…. not everything just like winning trophies, means a lot but not everything…
Well Spurs fans can tell themselves that then lol
I much rather this winning feeling
Our own manager says lifting the title is the ultimate success
Dan, you have gone off the rails now completely
The irony lol
The atmosphere at the game was absolutely electric. Great graphics (if that’s the right word) and a noisy crowd
Either we were outstanding or Spurs were dreadful- only coming into any sort of contention after that balls up of a goal. Prior to that Spurs had every man behind the ball and didn’t have enough stuffing to go toe to toe with Arsenal. When they did get the ball they couldn’t hold on to it as we hounded them for every ball.
Nobody had anything other than a very good game, but I’d have to pick out Trossard for his tireless forward runs and Eze who was outstanding.
Fantastic result and only a few spuds brave enough to stick around for the verbal mickey taking from the home crowd.
Come on bring on the Chaffs.
But first the little matter of a certain Bayern Munich in the CL, which game I couldn’t care a hoot about because Arsenal will be in the automatic knockout places whatever the result of that game j
Yes corporateman, but you couldn’t want to break the momentum! Plus even Bayern couldn’t want to face us either. Will Arteta rotate his squad? Today he made subs quite late, which signals to some changes come Wednesday. And I hope he does
No no as we saw last season finishing top generally gives you weaker opponents in the knock out phase so no inroad for complacency mate.
Ambachew, we have a strong enough squad now, whoever plays I haven’t seen any dropoff!
Very good win, orchestrated by Trossard and finished off by Eze. Eze raised his levels today for us. He needs to keep it up. Saka played well and so dud Timber. Spuds were poor but we were just too good.
Very important victory today.
Compared to last year, Arsenal finally have the depth in the squad that is needed, with all the demanding matches. Therefore, we do not see Arsenal falling apart just because Odegaard and other key players such as Havertz, Gyökeres, and Gabriel are out with injuries for a period of time. Today, players like Trossard, Rice and not least Eze were shining. Eze with his hat-trick was outstanding today and in addition he had several good passes, not least his brilliantly lifted pass in depth to Rice, who did not score only due to Vicario’s save. Eze is becoming more and more important for Arsenal as the season progresses. Eze was indeed a very good signing for Arsenal. It was important for Arsenal to win today, because both Manch. C and Liverpool lost. Now Chelsea is our closest challenger. Very difficult games in the coming weeks in both Premier League and the Champions League. Key to success are high pressure and the needed squad depth.
During pre-match press conference, Thomas Frank was asked about Eze and he mockingly asked, “who’s Eze”?, with a smirk on his face.
Eze clearly showed him who he is today. MLS did same for Halaand last season. When someone mocks you, instead of talking back, reply with performance.
Who is EZe ? EZe means a king .Hopefully Arsenal FC will be the king of Epl this season.
What a delightful weekend. Kicked the spuds. Liverpool thrashed. City lose and Pep loses it with poor old camera man. Will sleep well tonight.
He came in December 2019, and now we are the most consistent club in the league 🔴⚪️🏆
Hopefully the consistency finally leads to at least a trophy this season.
Yes, we finally have a squad strong enough to compete even with key players injured. Which is a key to win big titles in modern football.
This is the point. Without that – particularly in view of the injury list this year as well – it’s very difficult to be successful. Slowly but surely Arsenal are building momentum.
Yeah but remember trophies are not everything.
There are other things apparently that City and Liverpool can call success.
See apparently winning in sport is only one measurement of success lol
Yes, I look forward to our success and I can promise you that I will have a wonderful laugh, while thinking of all the muppets in this World 🔴⚪️
Kane.
Gnabry. Olise. Karl.
Pavlovic. Kimmich.
Stanisic. Upamecano. Tah. Laimer.
Neuer.
Despite viewing his appointment sceptically, the ref Oliver handled the game competently. Kudos to MO!
Yes I agree.
What an easy game to watch enjoyed with the comfort of knowing our rivals had stuffed up. We could even enjoy that creep Richarldson’s goal because there was so much confidence in the way we were playing. Four goals and not one from a set piece. As to Sue P.’s question of whether it was us playing brilliantly or them playing so poorly, I would say it was a combination of both because we simply didn’t allow them to play. They scored with their only shot on our goal and even that was against the run of play.
Hincapié side in the team seamlessly, the kid was perfect on his debut
In his post match interview Thomas Frank said ‘Arteta had 6 full seasons at Arsenal and mine is only 4 months’. So he was punished 1 goal for every month he stayed at Spurs.
I’m sorry Frank didn’t raise this point when he beat Man City 2-0 at Etihad and lots of away wins. He himself couldn’t get his composure even after the game like his team was throughout the match.
Same old Spursy boys! 😀 Frank is turning them into the next Brentford, just an average mid-table team, they were lucky we only scored 4, they were that bad.
Arsenal 4-1 Spurs. OH YES, I’ll say it again. Arsenal 4-1 Spurs. It gets better every time I think of it.
An excellent all round team performance. But obviously a special mention for Eze. It was good enough to beat Spurs, but the icing on the cake was Eze’s Hatrick.
He looks like he’s starting to find his niche in the team, and hopefully he will start producing these levels more consistently.
I’m looking at the games in blocks of 6 at a time. The first 6 brought us 13 points from a possible 18 points. 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss.
The second 6 brought us 16 points from a possible 18 points. 5 wins, 1 draw, 0 loss.
Now hopefully they can keep this sort of point’s level up for the next 6. 🤞
Well done again today boys. Those spuds have been put back in their box again. How Red is North London. 🤣👍