Arsenal bullied a Spurs side that seemed unambitious and unbothered to win.
The North London Derby continued to be a disappointing fixture for Spurs, with their rivals making it 4 wins in a row for the first time since the 1980's.
Useless from Players and Manager
I think most Spurs fans would've rather stayed in the international break, had they known the fate of the first NLD of the season. Arsenal had the opportunity to widening their lead at the top after a poor result for Manchester City on Saturday evening. Now they were faced with a fixture that had built up even more reputation after the summer's events involving a certain Eberechi Eze.
I think most fans weren't particularly optimistic coming into Sunday's game given the form of the rivals and the dreadful performance against Chelsea still fresh in the mind. When Thomas Frank announced the line-up, there were mixed comments mainly based on Richarlison's feature and Xavi's lack of inclusion. Whilst some fans were pleased to see a back 3 that had been mostly successful against PSG, it was pretty obvious what Frank was about to do against the league leaders. But my word, it couldn't have been a worse first 45 minutes if we tried.
The first 45 minutes consisted of Spurs smashing the ball long and somehow hoping that one of our offensive players would pluck it out the sky and score. Every free-kick was seen as a chance to hoof it long, although inevitably Arsenal (the team known for their set-piece specialism) dealt with our amateur play. It was completely cowardly and Arsenal deserved to be ahead at the break. Trossard opened the scoring thanks to comedic defending and you could have put your house on Eze scoring a goal. No surprise he did score... not 1, but 3.
Before the fans even retook their seats for the second half it was 3-0, Xavi had been brought on for Danso but the game was over before he could even touch the ball. Richarlison's wondergoal before the hour mark has probably secured him another 3 starts worth of falling to the ground and not winning headers. By this point I had actually switched the game off and was fortunate enough to miss Eze's hat trick-securing finish, putting the nail in a coffin that would only be suitable for Spurs. 'Who's Eze', Frank asked- How embarrassing.
Eze has actually scored a hattrick. It genuinely wouldn’t happen to any other club I can’t believe we exsist
— Seb Martin (@SebOnFootball) November 23, 2025
Post-match, Frank stated that 'We don't have enough duels or intensity in the decisive moments'. Is that something that comes from the players, or the style of play?
What now?
This result puts us 9th after 12 games, which is just unacceptable given some of the teams we've played. Patience is already running thin when regarding fans and Thomas Frank and to be honest, it doesn't surprise me. Not only are we extremely reactionary, but Frank seems to be offering nothing that is worthy of our dedication. It seems we were promised a false hope of aggression against big sides when playing PSG and Manchester City, but since then we have become absolute pushovers for any side that's willing to offer us a fight. Our response to going behind against our biggest rivals was to continue blasting the ball long, not giving any time on the ball to our skilful players that I assume we signed for a reason. We decided to show some passion when it was 3-1 and it still looked lack lustre!
Team selection is consistently odd, reliant on players like Bentancur, who even at their best, are not at the level we would expect from a side that wants to compete with the best. Our run doesn't get easier... PSG next and I hope that Frank and the players take a hard look at themselves, recognising that Sunday's performance was unforgivable.
It can't get much worse than this.
COYS!
