North London Has a New King — And Spurs Are Staring Into the Abyss

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North London Has a New King — And Spurs Are Staring Into the Abyss

The North London Derby has never just been a football match. It tells you something about the soul of both clubs, and what it told us on February 22nd, 2026 was stark: Arsenal are flying, and Tottenham are in genuine trouble.

A 4-1 hammering at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was not some fortunate smash-and-grab. It was a composed, controlled dismantling of a side that simply does not know what it is anymore. Mikel Arteta's men arrived with a plan, executed it with ruthless efficiency, and left North London with all three points stuffed comfortably in their back pocket.

Viktor Gyökeres was the man who really twisted the knife. His clinical brace silenced the home end and underlined the uncomfortable truth that the gap in quality between these two squads is no longer a matter of debate. Eberechi Eze chipped in with two of his own, and by the second half it felt less like a derby and more like a training exercise for the Gunners.

To be fair, Spurs gave it a go early on. Randal Kolo Muani's equaliser briefly raised the roof and offered a flicker of hope that new interim boss Igor Tudor might spark some sort of reaction from the dressing room. He did not. Whatever bounce the new manager was supposed to provide never arrived, and Tottenham spent the rest of the afternoon looking lost.

The table makes for grim reading if you are a Spurs supporter. Sixteenth place. Four points above the drop zone. A fanbase that came into the season dreaming of Europe now nervously counting the gap to the bottom three. This is not a blip — this is a full-blown identity crisis, and nobody at the club seems quite sure how to stop it.

Arsenal, meanwhile, sit five points clear at the top with 61 points to their name. Manchester City still have a game in hand, so it would be premature to start ordering the bunting. But there is a belief about this Arsenal side that has not always been there in recent years. They no longer look like a team hoping to win the title. They look like a team expecting to.

The Premier League rolls on to Goodison Park next, where Manchester United take on Everton. But the story of the weekend has already been written. North London belongs to Arsenal right now — and for Tottenham, the worry is that things could yet get worse before they get better.