There was nothing much in the scoreline at the end, other than Harry Kane's seventh goal in his seventh North London derby, but anyone who was at Wembley on this drizzly day could not fail to notice the disparity between these two old rivals.
As Arsene Wenger hopes that the last great team of his Arsenal years will emerge, he is up against a Tottenham Hotspur side who are hitting peak form now and turned the second half of this derby into one of the most one-sided in memory. There should have been many more goals for Mauricio Pochettino's team and perhaps there would have been if so many of their best chances had not been struck straight at Petr Cech.
The old boy stood firm, not quite as capable as he once was, but well able to push away those struck directly at him, which included a whip-crack volley from Kane and a back post chance taken on the full by Kieran Trippier. Kane was the match-winner with his header four minutes into the second half, but also for his relentless link-up play, a blend of the powerful domination of defenders while executing the most delicate lay-offs for the teammates running off him.
Spurs should have won the game long before Wenger sent on Danny Welbeck for the final few minutes, to augment the introduction of Alexandre Lacazette and Alex Iwobi from the bench in the second half. The new axis of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had barely had an effect on the game and the Armenian did not last the full 90 minutes, replaced by Lacazette.The Frenchman had an opportunity in the third minute of time added on at the end, played through by Iwobi for Arsenal's best chance of the game and slotted a shot wide of the post. A draw would have flattered Arsenal but strange things can happen on days like these.
It was also an inauspicious day for the newly minted king of Arsenal's contracts, Mesut Ozil, who failed with a late free-kick conceded by Mousa Dembele. Arsenal are seven points behind Spurs in fourth now, and winning the Europa League is their best chance of a return to the Champions League. Spurs are back in third, with Chelsea playing their equivalent game tomorrow.
Spurs had inched their opposition back over the course of the first half, a grip that they could not convert into a goal. Kane was in control of Shkodran Mustafi, shrugging him off like an overcoat at one point and generally introducing an element of uncertainty into everything the German did. But Kane could not control a header from a Christian Eriksen cross from the left, his best chance of the first half.
There were not many more first-half chances for Spurs, other than a scuffed volley from Dembele that Eric Dier could not redirect at goal. In the first eight minutes, a Dele Alli cross that Mustafi deflected towards his own goal was saved by Cech.
Arsenal only glimpsed the Spurs goal before half time with the occasional breakaway. In fact the best chance was a ball that fell to the industrious Jack Wilshere, in place of the injured Aaron Ramsey, which the Englishman failed to connect with cleanly. The winning goal came soon after half time when Kane got between Nacho Monreal and Laurent Koscielny to head a goal his efforts deserved...