Arsenal answer title pressure with resounding derby win at Tottenham

LONDON — Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres both scored twice in an emphatic 4-1 north London derby win for Arsenal as the Gunners restored their five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League with 10 matches remaining.

Eze, who became the first Arsenal player to score a Premier League hat trick against Spurs in a 4-1 win at the Emirates last November, extended his scoring streak against the side he rejected in favor of a move to his boyhood team from Crystal Palace last summer, netting twice. Meanwhile, Gyökeres (two second-half goals) produced his best performance since arriving from Sporting CP last summer. Although Randal Kolo Muani briefly gave Spurs hope for a positive result when he canceled out Eze’s first-half opener, new coach Igor Tudor suffered a heavy defeat in his first game in charge, and his team is facing a battle against relegation at the wrong end of the table.

With City turning up the pressure on Arsenal with a 2-1 home win against Newcastle on Saturday, Mikel Arteta’s team responded with character to claim victory against its local rival and deliver a message to City that it is prepared to go the distance in order to win its first league title since 2004. — Mark Ogden

Braces from Viktor Gyökeres and Eberechi Eze give Arsenal their 5th North London Derby win in a row! pic.twitter.com/8swPaZX0YU

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) February 22, 2026

Arsenal respond to mounting pressure

Regardless of Tottenham’s current struggles, this was billed as a huge test of Arsenal’s character after the Gunners dropped four points against Brentford and Wolves in the past 10 days.

Manchester City cranked up the pressure even further with a 2-1 win over Newcastle, which cut the gap to just two points at kickoff, and when Randal Kolo Muani equalized at 34 minutes, catching Declan Rice in possession and finishing from a narrow angle beyond David Raya, they could have easily folded once again. However, the gulf in class between these two sides was obvious and, for once of late, Arsenal kept playing with purpose to eventually translate that superiority to the scoreline.

They might have been expected to win given that Spurs had only 13 senior fit players available and have won just two home league games all season, but nevertheless this is a result that should lessen — if not silence — the talk of Arsenal losing their ”bottle” with three months still to go. — James Olley

Let’s not deny it: Spurs are in a relegation battle

Igor Tudor now has 11 league games to save Tottenham Hotspur from relegation from the Premier League. It sounds incredible, but it’s a fact that everyone at the club needs to accept quickly.

Sunday’s heavy defeat left Spurs just four points above West Ham, who occupy the third relegation spot right now, but the Hammers, Nottingham Forest and Leeds have shown signs in recent weeks of being able to escape the drop zone. Spurs, meanwhile, haven’t won a league game in 2026, and they really don’t look close to ending that streak anytime soon if they continue to play without any kind of goal threat.

Their next fixture is a difficult trip to in-form London rivals Fulham before a potentially crucial home game against Crystal Palace on March 5. Alongside Spurs, West Ham, Leeds and Forest, Palace are the other team in the five-way battle to avoid the drop, and their form is almost as bad as Tottenham’s, with Oliver Glasner’s future as coach continuing to be a major question.

Spurs have the games to get themselves out of trouble, but when you haven’t won since December and your squad is lacking top quality and the ability to scrap, then you have a problem. Spurs have that problem, and denial about the situation they’re in could see them spiral toward a once-unthinkable relegation. — Ogden

Eze excels and Gyökeres produces his most important goal

Of all the failed transfer moves Tottenham have endured, their inability to sign Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace last summer must haunt the club more than most. Spurs had agreed a £60 million deal with Palace only for Eze to choose to join the Gunners at the last minute.

How has he fared? Well, the 27-year-old has scored seven goals for Arsenal this season, with five of them coming against Tottenham. Amazingly, Eze’s 32nd-minute strike Sunday was his first shot on target in the league since his hat trick in November’s reverse fixture.

While Eze has struggled for consistent minutes this season, Viktor Gyökeres has faltered under the weight of expectation following his summer move from Sporting Lisbon. He wasn’t entirely convincing again Sunday, but his superb 47th-minute strike probably ranks as the most important goal he has scored for the Gunners. It might surprise you to know it was his 14th of the season, but many of those have come against weak opposition or late in games with the result already beyond doubt.

Spurs are of course 16th in the league, but the match was firmly in the balance when Gyökeres picked the ball up on the edge of the box and finished emphatically to restore the visitors’ lead. It is a moment that continues an upward trend of late and he built on it further in stoppage time — scoring the sort of goal we have seen more often to reach 15, muscling in on goal and curling the ball in from a narrow angle — as Arsenal counterattacked quickly. — Olley

Tottenham fans buy into Tudor … for now

The game was less than half an hour old when the Spurs fans started singing “Igor Tudor’s blue and white army,” and that was at least one positive for the new Tottenham coach during a humbling first game in charge.

It was the displeasure of the Spurs fans that sparked Thomas Frank’s downfall after half a season in charge, so the voice of the supporters does have an impact on decisions made at the top levels of all clubs. And although the Spurs hierarchy were initially resistant to calls for Frank to go, the combination of bad results and fan anger ultimately cost him his job earlier this month.

It’s very early days for Tudor, but the Spurs fans never warned to former Brentford coach Frank, so the fact that he already has buy-in from the supporters is something on which he can build.

Tudor was a left-field appointment, and the majority of fans were — and might still be — skeptical of the former Lazio and Juventus boss, but the tenacity and desire shown by the Spurs players early in this game was down to Tudor’s management and motivation and it impressed the supporters. The result clearly didn’t, and Spurs still have a long way to go, but the fans at least seem to believe in their new coach. — Ogden

Arsenal’s individual errors continue, but aren’t costly this time

Moments after Eberechi Eze gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead, Declan Rice could be seen on the pitch telling his jubilant teammates to stay focused and switched on. It was a message repeated from interviews he gave in the buildup to Sunday’s derby, citing a need to cut out individual mistakes that had cost Arsenal of late. And yet, just two minutes later, Rice was caught in possession deep in his own half by Randal Kolo Muani, who turned and drove a low finish past David Raya to make it 1-1.

It was the fourth such mistake leading to a goal in 2026 alone, following on from Gabriel Magalhães at Bournemouth, Martín Zubimendi against Manchester United and the mix-up between Gabriel and Raya at Wolves. This time it didn’t cost them three points, but there is still work to do to stop making games harder for themselves, as Rice rightly identified beforehand. — Olley