Arsenal eased mounting title nerves and deepened Tottenham Hotspur's relegation fears with a ruthless 4-1 victory in a one-sided north London derby. Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres both scored twice as Mikel Arteta's side reasserted their authority at the top of the Premier League, restoring a five-point lead over Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Randal Kolo Muani briefly offered Spurs hope with his first league goal for the club, cancelling out Eze's opener before half-time on Igor Tudor's debut in the home dugout. But Arsenal's quality and cohesion told after the break, Gyökeres restoring the lead, Eze punishing more slack defending, and Gyökeres adding late gloss as thousands of home supporters streamed for the exits and the away end revelled in chants about their rivals going down. Tottenham remain 16th, four points above the relegation zone, with just two league wins in their last 18 matches.
Arsenal Take Control Amid Derby Cauldron
The backdrop could hardly have been more charged. Tottenham, with only two Premier League home wins all season and mired in a relegation fight, craved a new-manager bounce under Tudor after Thomas Frank's dismissal. Arsenal arrived under a different kind of strain, their lead at the summit trimmed by dropped points at Brentford and Wolves, the draw at Molineux described as a disaster and fuelling talk that Arteta's team were cracking under the weight of the title race.