For a little while before today’s North London Derby at home between Tottenham and Arsenal, there was some hope. Igor Tudor stepped in for his first match as interim head coach, Dele Alli showed up as a halftime guest, and you could almost believe Spurs might turn their whole season around and spoil Arsenal’s, all in one afternoon.

But that didn’t happen. Arsenal walked away with the win, thanks to two goals each from Eberechi Eze, who, remember, rejected Spurs to join Arsenal, and Victor Gyokeres, their misfiring Swedish striker. Randal Kolo Muani managed to tie things up in the first half just two minutes after Eze’s opener, and he even put the ball in the net again, only for the ref to rule it out after Gabriel Magalhaes hit the turf a bit too dramatically. Richarlison came off the bench in the second half and nearly scored with a clever flick, but David Raya somehow kept it out. Then, in extra time, Gyokeres slammed in another, and Arsenal left with a 4-1 win.

Honestly, Arsenal controlled the match from the start. They had the ball, the stats – everything. Spurs fans can’t help but feel gutted. The team’s stuck in a real relegation fight now, and they need every single point they can scrape together. Losing to Arsenal always stings, but this one? It hurts even more than usual.

That finality you get from moments like Didier Drogba’s penalty after extra time in the 2012 Champions League Final – it’s almost too much. If you really want to understand the pressure and weight of that moment, you’ve got to dig into all the tangled histories leading up to it.

Back to today: Tudor set Spurs up with his usual back three, but he had to improvise. Joao Palhinha and Radu Dragusin lined up next to Micky van de Ven, since Cristian Romero was suspended and Kevin Danso was out hurt. Honestly, Spurs didn’t look that different from how they played under Thomas Frank for most of this season, but there was a bit more energy, a little more purpose, at least at the start. That edge, the one they’ve been missing for months, showed up for a bit, but it just wasn’t enough.

Mikel Arteta’s message to his players is simple: stay calm, keep your heads, and just get on with it. The pressure’s cranked up; Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League in 22 years, and everyone knows it.

Wednesday night didn’t help. Arsenal let a two-goal lead slip against Wolves, who are dead last. That handed Manchester City a chance to take control of the title race. If City win their last 12 games, including that huge clash with Arsenal at the Etihad in April, they’ll be champions. It’s that straightforward.

Even so, Arsenal are still five points clear at the top. Sure, they’ve played one more match than City, but they’re leading. You can feel the baggage, though. Three seasons as runners-up leave their mark, and after the 2-2 draw at Wolves and just two wins in their last seven league games, the “bottlers” tag is getting thrown around again.

Arteta isn’t buying into that. Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Tottenham, he shrugged off the noise. “The media’s tough. Everyone has their own opinion, and everyone thinks they’re right,” he said.

“If we all had our own personal record of what we expected from this season, I bet it’d be interesting to look back and see what you thought would happen three, five, or eight months ago. Probably not this.”

He’s trying to keep things in perspective. “We know what we need to do. We have to live in the moment, and honestly, it’s a good place to be. We’re exactly where we want to be in every competition. So I’m staying calm, eyes open, ears open, just figuring out what the players need to perform.”

Arteta even quoted Wolves manager Rob Edwards, who told him straight up both in the press conference and by text that Arsenal are the best team in the league, “by far".

It’s not just talk. Arsenal are heading to the Carabao Cup final next month, they breezed through their Champions League group with eight wins out of eight, and they’re favourites to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals, with a winnable tie at Mansfield coming up.

Arteta likes what he’s seen from his squad. “Their reaction’s been fantastic, and honestly, I’m not surprised. When you drop points in the last seconds, especially in such a freak way, Wolves had a 0.02 xG chance and still scored. Nobody can really explain that. But that’s football. It hurts; it’s a gut punch, but then you have to move on and ask, 'Now what?’”

“That was just chapter 27. What matters is the next one. How do we bounce back? How do we decide our own story from here?”

There’s some good news on the injury front, too. Martin Ødegaard and Kai Havertz both missed the Wolves match, but they could be back for the showdown with Spurs. “We’ll see tomorrow, but there’s a good chance they’ll be ready,” Arteta said.