Tottenham 1-4 Arsenal (Kolo Muani 34′ | Eze 32′, 61′, Gyokeres 47′, 90’+4)
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM — Let the title run-in continue like this, hearts racing, need meeting desperation, passion burning holes through reason, making the young old, and the old young again.
This was the kind of afternoon Viktor Gyokeres imagined would be his when he joined Arsenal in the summer but which has proven painfully elusive. Ten goals in 26 Premier League matches is hardly Erling Haaland returns.
Most Gooners can’t make up their minds about their Swedish anvil, but for once none of that mattered. He was their straight-shooter right enough, rescuing Arsenal from the threat of more self-inflicted torment then spraying ice all over the cake in added time.
What a strike from Viktor Gyökeres?! pic.twitter.com/ZwjrAbySxE
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 22, 2026This match was, of course, the moment around the poker table when cards are laid down. Manchester City invited Arsenal to reveal their hand. Show us what you’ve got, Mikel, said Pep Guardiola with the win over Newcastle United. “You’re good, kid, but while I’m around you will never be the man” is a sentiment shared by many, and possibly Arteta himself.
The poker framing comes from The Cincinnati Kid, a classic Hollywood noir movie featuring the Arteta-like Steve McQueen, all short-haired, cinematic charisma, and Edward G Robinson, a cigar-smoking serial winner who dines on pretenders. A lead that stood at nine points earlier this month had shrunk to two after City’s Saturday classic, triggering the anxiety that ritually eats away at Arteta’s construct as spring approaches.
He demanded a response after damaging draws at Brentford and Wolves. A fine strike from Eberechi Eze had the bunting out, the celebration at the base of the Great Wall of Tottenham was the eff you moment for which Arteta was asking.
Arsenal were facing Igor Tudor’s first Premier League engagement. Fuelling the superstition swirling about the fixture was Tudor’s record of five debut victories across the European clubs he has managed. Such is the febrile texture of Arsenal’s collective consciousness, any sign, any detail, any piece of happenstance at all is significant; feared, dreaded, anticipated with alarm.
And so it was that Declan Rice would feed the monster trying to be, well, Declan Rice. The imperious Pretorian who marshalled Arsenal through autumn and winter, talked of as a Ballon d’Or contender no less, is a baller who has suddenly lost the capacity to ball.
Arsenal led for barely 90 seconds when Rice transformed the trajectory of Randal Kolo Muani, coughing up the ball on the edge of his own box and standing by helplessly as the flat-lining Frenchman exploded into life. It was the only meaningful touch Spurs had had in the Arsenal box in the opening half, which tells you how brittle the table toppers can be.
Between them Gyokeres and Eze rescued Rice from his heavy-legged fug, answering the questions the whole team had been asking of themselves. This was Eze’s best afternoon since the hat-trick that put Spurs though the same 4-1 mincer at the Emirates. With England manager Thomas Tuchel looking on, his two goals could hardly have demonstrated more his capacity to impact the big match.
Gyorkores was all shoot-on-sight, leading-man energy, stalking the centre ground and keeping things short-back-and sides simple. When you put your laces through a ball as cleanly as he, why complicate things? The outcome shrieks no contest.
But that was never a given. Spurs equalised 29 seconds after the restart, had a goal disallowed with the score at 2-1 and forced a marvelous reaction from David Raya with the score at 3-1.
Had any of those moments gone the way of Spurs, the narrative might have swallowed Arteta whole. As it is he gets to play another hand, perhaps with a few cards Guardiola has not yet seen.
As for Spurs, they showed enough fight for a spell to make Arsenal doubt themselves, but in the end they could not escape the negative momentum that has claimed them. Perhaps Henry Tudor would have been a better caretaker fit. That said it was probably easier to send Catherine of Aragon into exile and the Pope packing.
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