Every Premier League title winner secures a defining victory on the way to becoming champions; Arsenal might just have claimed theirs in Sunday’s 4-1 North London derby win at Tottenham Hotspur.
Forget the fact that Mikel Arteta’s side faced opposition who are winless in domestic football in 2026 and now battling to avoid relegation. The victory was all about Arsenal answering questions, posed internally and externally, about their ability to hold their nerve in the title race.
In the most testing of circumstances, away to their bitter rivals in their new coach’s first game in charge, and less than 24 hours after Manchester City had won again to move within two points of the top spot, Arsenal stood up and performed, and won, like champions. It can be easy to mock the desperation of Arsenal and their supporters to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004 — and rival fans are certainly mocking the Gunners and their title nerves — but just when the pressure was becoming intense and the margin for error diminishing, Arsenal delivered a statement victory.
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Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers, when they surrendered a 2-0 lead against the Premier League’s bottom team, could have become the defining result of Arsenal’s season. The result placed Arteta and his players at a fork in the road; they simply had to respond in a positive manner after that setback because the two points dropped at Molineux completely changed the dynamic of the title race.
With that draw, City could deny Arsenal the title by winning all of their remaining games, including a potential decider against the Gunners scheduled for the Etihad on April 18, so any subsequent slip by Arteta’s team would be a further loss of crucial momentum. And the failure to win at Wolves led to some of Arsenal’s most successful former players questioning their resolve, with two-time title winner Paul Merson describing them as «bottle jobs» and suggesting that the players were «melting.»
Whether it is because Arsenal have finished as runners-up in each of the past three seasons or the fact that City — who have won six of the past eight Premier League titles — is the team chasing them, there seems to be little faith outside the Gunners’ dressing room in the team’s ability to win the race.
Such is the state of anxiety around the team and nervous tension that grips the Emirates whenever Arsenal play at home that midfielder Declan Rice felt moved to call for unity after the draw at Wolves.
«At this stage of the season, we need the supporters with us more than ever,» Rice told Sky Sports. «We’ve come this far together. Now is not the time to be turning against each other.
«Keep believing in us, keep pushing us and hopefully we can bring some special things with everyone’s help. So let’s keep going.»
Yet even though Rice was trying to project an air of calm and confidence from within the squad, his words only added to the sense that Arteta’s players are grasping for somebody to tell them that everything is going to be alright.
But words count for little when they come after bad results. There is only one way to banish the doubts in a title race: just go out and win. City did just that by beating Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month, fighting back from 1-0 down to win 2-1. Midfielder Bernardo Silva admitted after that game that City would have been out of the title race had they failed to secure all three points, but the victory propelled Pep Guardiola’s side back into contention and exacerbated the nervousness around Arsenal.
City had won when they had to, so when were Arsenal going to do the same? It was a legitimate question, because when the stakes have been at their highest this season, Arsenal have failed to win. They drew at home to City in September, lost to Liverpool at Anfield and then drew 0-0 at home to Arne Slot’s team, drew 1-1 at Chelsea in November and then lost at home to Manchester United in January.
Arteta and his players would argue that their 4-1 win at home to Aston Villa in December was a win when it mattered, but that was Arsenal’s fourth successive league win, so they entered that game in form and with belief running through the club.
Spurs was different. Even though Arsenal went into the game as league leaders, they had won just two of their previous seven league games, dropping 11 points from a possible 21 during that run, and City had moved to within touching distance.
The pressure was on. Fan emotions were progressing from anxiety to anger, club legends were beginning to question the team’s credentials and opposing fans were taunting the Gunners with chants of «Second again, olé, olé.»
Every screw was being tightened and the noise was becoming intense, but Arsenal turned the volume down and produced a result that will be seen as the moment that their title challenge slipped into fifth gear … if they go on to win it. But at least we now know that Arsenal can win when they really have to.
