This was a do-or-die battle with City breathing down our necks. Man City, the media, the opposition fans, all were watching, anticipating a slip-up. A draw would have felt like a defeat. A loss would have handed Pep Guardiola's side the psychological advantage they've been desperately waiting for since January. And yet we went to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and we put four past them without breaking a sweat.

The watching world didn't get their slip-up. They got Eberechi Eze and they got Viktor Gyokeres. They got an Arsenal side that, when the stakes are highest, has learned to deliver.

Let's give credit where it is absolutely owed. Eberechi Eze was magnificent: two goals, orchestrating everything, a player who looks utterly transformed from the one who was being called a luxury signing by people who never understood what he brought to this system. Viktor Gyokeres was relentless. Eight goals in the calendar year 2026, more than anyone else in the Premier League. A striker who holds defenders, makes runs into space, and scores goals that matter.

Igor Tudor's first game in charge was a disaster for Spurs, still winless in 2026, still staring at a relegation fight they created entirely by themselves. Back-to-back league doubles over Spurs for the first time since 1988/89. This is what fogging estandards looks like.

I am not going to let today's brilliance paper over a problem that has cost us real points this season, because the title race is too tight for sentiment.

When Declan Rice switched off outside his own corner flag and Kolu Muani nicked it off him to pull it back to 1-1, the stadium held its breath. We recovered, and Eze scored immediately after the second-half began, and it barely mattered in the end. But it was part of a pattern this season that I genuinely cannot stop thinking about.

Aston Villa, 6 December. We were the better team for long spells. Then Pau Torres' cross took a nick off Timber, and Cash took advantage of Eze switching off at the back post to lash home. Villa led at half-time. We equalised through Trossard. Then, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, a goalmouth scramble and Emiliano Buendía stroked it home. Three points dropped. A lead that went from six to three in a single afternoon.

Manchester United, 25 January. The one that still makes me furious. We went ahead through a Lisandro Martínez own goal and were controlling the game, playing exactly the way Arteta wants us to play. Then Zubimendi, usually one of our most reliable operators, —played a first-time back-pass so soft, so misdirected, that Bryan Mbeumo barely had to break stride. He rounded Raya and rolled it in to make 1-1. From there, the anxiety in the building became palpable. Dorgu hit a screamer to put them ahead. We equalised late through Merino. Then in the 87th minute, Cunha curled one into the bottom corner and made it 3-2 in their favour. Three points dropped because of a moment of inexplicable sloppiness from a player is generally assured on the ball.

Wolverhampton Wanderers, 18 February. The most painful of all, because this one had no business ending in a draw. We were 2-0 up against the bottom side in the league. Dominating by every measurable metric and an xG of 1.86 to their 0.29. Then Hugo Bueno curled one in, and the nerves crept in. Then, in stoppage time, substitute Tom Edozie, making his senior debut, struck a shot that deflected in off Calafiori after a mix-up between Gabriel and Raya. A chaotic, avoidable, self-inflicted equaliser against the bottom-of-the-table side. We handed Wolves a Premier League record: the first team in history to be bottom of the table, trail 2-0 against the league leaders, and avoid defeat. We wrote that record for them. Two points dropped because of sloppy performance, and nobody in that dressing room could argue otherwise.

Sunday proved beyond any doubt that this squad is better than every other team in England when we are at our best. Eze is world-class. Gyokeres is a title-winning striker. But individual errors have directly cost us against Villa, United, and Wolves. In a title race where Manchester City are five points behind with games to play, we cannot keep gifting moments of sloppiness to teams that are willing to punish us. We have been, at various points this season, our own biggest opponent. The next ten games will define whether this group has finally learned from it. Today, we answered. Emphatically.