Arsenal: Tempering emotions with atrocious Tottenham

Everything is wonderful. The dinner you burned last night? Doesn’t matter. The heavy London rain and wind the morning after the game soaking your shoes? So be it. Arsenal winning the North London Derby is unmatched. When it happens you savour every second of it.

With so much to love from the performance on Sunday – Hale End making their mark, the captain getting in on the act, Spurs fans leaving early – it’s near enough impossible to poke any holes. And perhaps not even poke holes, but find anything even remotely, shall we say, negative?

Perfection is impossible to reach but Arsenal came mightily close against Tottenham in that 3-1 win. A magnificent day was topped off by the Arsenal women thumping Manchester City 5-0 and now sitting top of the WSL table above Spurs, funnily enough, after three games.

It doesn’t get better than that.

Arsenal were magnificent in their 3-1 win over an atrocious Tottenham side – but tougher games will come starting with Brighton up next

So, where is the caveat to claiming victory over Nuno Espirito Santo’s side? That old chestnut in football is back again, sadly: were Arsenal very good or were Tottenham that bad?

First of all it needs mentioning that this was probably the best 45 minutes, and perhaps overall performance, seen under Mikel Arteta since he took the job: quick, aggressive, tactically on point and clinical. And while Arsenal undoubtedly made Tottenham look poor, they were also absolutely shocking. One of the worst performances seen from a Tottenham team in this fixture for quite some time.

If it was roles reversed in terms of team displays Arsenal fans would have been calling for Arteta’s sacking mid-game.

And while that isn’t a downside as such (partially because it’s brilliant to see them in disarray) since Arsenal were still sensational, it is an unavoidable fact that comes from the game.

Does it detract from what Arteta’s side did? Certainly not. You can only beat what is in front of you. But Brighton next up on the Premier League fixture list will undoubtedly be a tougher game. Far more challenging tests are to come.

We take nothing away from those 95 magnificent minutes. None whatsoever. Arsenal didn’t win because Spurs were dreadful.

But while this is the ‘landmark’ win Arteta needed against a direct rival geographically and competitively and it provides the benchmark for this team to grow and build for the future, a hilariously abysmal Spurs side will be one of the easier fixtures on the road to the goal of a top six finish, which remains the most realistic target.

It is nonetheless a massive step to take because despite how woeful Santo’s side were, the likelihood is that with the players they have they should be challenging in and around those European places come the end of the season.

So too, perhaps, will be Brighton.