It was the long-awaited match of this Premier League weekend: the big one “North London Derby” pitting Arsenal, first in the Premier League, against Tottenham (eighth before the match), at the Emirates Stadium. On the Gunners side, Mikel Arteta had to do without Gabriel, injured with Brazil, replaced by Piero Hincapié alongside William Saliba in the center. Already deprived of Viktor Gyökeres, Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard in the offensive sector, the championship leaders see their defense put to the test to close this year 2025. For their part, Tottenham lined up a three-way defense, with Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso and Micky van de Ven, and could also count on Mohammed Kudus, Richarlison and Wilson Odobert to try to disrupt the Arsenal rearguard. The French Kolo Muani and Mathys Tel started on the Spurs bench, as did the former PSG player, Xavi Simons.
With 197 historic confrontations, Arsenal dominates (84 victories against 61 for Tottenham), and the two English teams have quite impressive records in their field. Indeed, Arsenal are almost unbeatable at home, while Tottenham are the best defense away. After Aston Villa’s victory at Leeds (2-1), Spurs could hope to temporarily climb to 4th place in the event of success against their great London rival. Arsenal pushed very early, like Eberechi Eze, whose dive for Rice saw the volley saved by Vicario, while the former RC Lens, Danso, almost deceived his own goalkeeper. The duels were fierce from the start: the game was briefly stopped: Trossard remained on the ground after heavy contact with Palhinha, who unintentionally hit the Belgian in the shin (12th). As the first half progressed, Tottenham tried to manage the game and slow down the pace, but Arsenal monopolized the ball and imposed their pressure from midfield. In the 32nd minute, Bentancur received a yellow card for a foul on Saka, offering a dangerous free kick that goalkeeper Vicario saved with a spectacular dive.
Eberechi Eze scores a hat-trick in his first North London Derby
A few moments later, on a delight of a dive ball from Mikel Merino, Trossard opened the scoring for the Gunners by deceiving Vicario with the left foot after an involuntary counter from the Spurs defender van de Ven (1-0, 36th). Only 4 minutes later, Arteta’s men doubled the lead thanks to summer recruit Eberechi Eze, who followed quickly after a cross pushed back by Danso to shoot Vicario with a low right-footed shot (2-0, 41st). With this goal, the England international scored his second goal of the season in the PL. Just before the break, tempers got heated between Timber and Udogie, but the referee didn’t warn anyone. The ensuing free kick was returned directly by the Tottenham defense. Upon returning from the locker room, the former Crystal Palace star scored a double: after pressing on the right side, Timber served Eze at the entrance to the area, full axis, and the latter adjusted Vicario with a left-footed strike flush with the post (3-0, 46th). Thomas Frank’s men then pushed and managed to reduce the score thanks to a totally exceptional goal from Richarlison (3-1, 55th). From outside the area, the 28-year-old Brazilian attempted an instinctive lob and surprised goalkeeper Raya, thus relaunching Tottenham with a superb goal after a recovery from Palhinha in midfield. Note that Richarlison scored on Spurs’ very first strike in this derby.
Spurs coach Thomas Frank wanted to bring new blood to his team by bringing in Kolo Muani and Pape Matar Sarr (66th), but the Gunners remained very focused and combative when they lost the ball. In the 73rd, Saka woke up his teammates and the Emirates crowd with a curling left-footed shot from the edge of the area, which Vicario pushed away for a corner, followed by an attempt from Kudus in the 74th, easily caught by Raya. But Arsenal then stepped up their efforts thanks to Eberechi Eze, author of his first hat-trick in the colors of the Gunners: announced this summer for Tottenham before finally choosing the other north London club, he chose his match perfectly to mark the spirit of his new supporters. On an action initiated by Merino and relayed by Trossard, Eze scored in the middle to give Arsenal a 3-goal lead (4-1, 76th), and a few moments later, he almost scored a quadruple, but Vicario dove brilliantly to push his shot towards the top corner. In the 87th minute, a fight broke out near the central circle after a foul by Rice on Simons: Romero took on the Englishman, who was finally booked. With this big victory, Arsenal made a huge step in the Premier League standings, taking 6 points ahead of their runner-up Chelsea, while Tottenham, now 9th, will not come to the Parc des Princes with confidence next Wednesday, in C1.
