Arsenal shakes off set-piece shackles in dominant derby win

Or has it? As the final whistle blew on Arsenal's galvanizing 4-1 North London Derby win over Tottenham Hotspur, the remarkable thing about the match wasn't the score: it was how it came together. Each of Arsenal's four goals—one from underrated Belgian winger Leandro Trossard, three from recent arrival Eberechi Eze—came from open play, not direct set pieces.

Arsenal's derby win proves that it's become something better than the sum of its reputations. It's more than the triangular passes of the past and the route-one efficiency of the present: it's both, and the rest of the Premier League ought to be terrified.

The Merino-Trossard connection

Arsenal's opening goal was the perfect amalgam of the team's enduring beauty and practiced directness. It began in the middle third, with Spanish midfielder Mikel Merino. He spotted Trossard to his left and knew he would run onto the right shot. Merino looped a perfect ball over the Tottenham defense, and Trossard—right on cue—sprinted past to collect it.

The game stood still. Trossard, seemingly with all the time in the world, brought the ball down, swiveled his body a full 270 degrees and lasered a shot into the near corner of Spurs' goal.

Clever? Absolutely. Built up from open play? Of course. Direct? There's nothing else to call it. This was the new Arsenal, writ large through the work of two of its underrates heroes.

No Gabriel, no problem

Arsenal entered this match without its best player: center back Gabriel, whose 2025 has been the stuff of legend. It's Gabriel who hammers home Arsenal's famous set pieces, and it was Gabriel who sunk Spurs in a crucial North London derby last season.

Without Gabriel, the goals were going to have to come from someone else...and summer arrival Eze stepped up to the challenge.

With a cool head and an even cooler right foot, Eze corralled the game and slammed home a glorious hat trick over the course of just 30 minutes. He became just the fourth Arsenal player in history to score a hat trick against Spurs.

A bright future

Arsenal has a difficult winter ahead: Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Aston Villa are waiting for it in November and December. Years ago, that run of fixtures would've chilled Arsenal's spine; today, it's just another set of games.

Will Arsenal score through beautiful one-two play? Will it score through set pieces? Or will it find a perfect blend of the aestheticism and efficiency, as it did against Spurs? Whatever the team chooses, one thing is clear: it's here to win on its own terms.