Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.
This was the round where Arsenal answered a few critics with another 4-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool boosted their Champions League prospects with a smash-and-grab win at Nottingham Forest, moving them level on points with Chelsea, who stuttered at home to Burnley.
We will ask whether talk over Arsenal’s supposed fragile mentality is valid, question just how much trouble Spurs are in and ponder what on earth has happened to Crystal Palace.
Will Arsenal’s ability or mentality decide the title?
Questions keep being asked of Mikel Arteta’s team and, in their own time, they just about keep answering them.
One month ago, after losing at home against Manchester United and going three league games without a win, their title challenge had hit the rocks, they looked mentally weak and were playing football in treacle.
How did they respond? With emphatic victories over two tough opponents in Sunderland and Leeds United.
In recent days, they have been barracked — not without cause — from all quarters after letting a two-goal lead slip against Wolverhampton Wanderers, a team on track to be one of the worst in Premier League history.
This time, Arsenal’s answer was to dish out yet another north London derby hiding to Spurs, repeating their 4-1 victory from earlier in the season.
There is definitely an element of ‘it’s only Spurs’, given how dreadful Igor Tudor’s new team were. As Declan Rice had correctly suggested in the build-up, a derby against struggling opponents was the ideal follow-up match after the midweek slump at Wolves.
Martin Odegaard leads the cheers after the win at Tottenham Hotspur (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
But given how another individual mistake from an Arsenal player, this time Rice, gifted Randal Kolo Muani the opportunity to equalise in the first half, Arsenal deserve credit for showing the mental fortitude to overcome adversity and reclaim their five-point lead at the top.
They have not been in imperious form this year — four wins, four draws and one defeat from nine league matches in 2026 — but evidence is starting to stack up that mentality is less the question that Arsenal have to answer this season. It’s just about whether they’re good enough to stave off Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s mind games have started in earnest. His call for City’s players to have a few days of cocktails and “enjoy life” could not be more at odds with Mikel Arteta’s “go and do something else” rallying cry on Friday, when stating that if his players couldn’t handle the “noise”, they should play for a different club.
Life feels intense at Arsenal right now, what with team meetings and firm chats after the Wolves debacle, but that’s the course Arteta has plotted.
Even the Tottenham stadium announcer played the mentality card, shouting that Arsenal were “worried” and “nervous as hell” before kick-off, but it increasingly feels that Arsenal’s fluidity from open play, for example, is far more relevant than how much bottle they’ve got.
Was it really mentality that saw them put in such a stodgy performance at Wolves? Or were they just very poor from open play? Conversely, at Spurs, was it a sudden newfound winning mentality that led to them winning so comfortably, or was is Bukayo Saka being back in his best position on the pitch to set up the opener, or Viktor Gyokeres finding his shooting boots (with help from flat-footed defenders) with probably his best performance and certainly his best day in an Arsenal shirt?
And then Eberechi Eze, with, remarkably, his first shots on target in the league since his hat-trick in the reverse fixture, produced his best form in months and cut through a desperately fragile Spurs midfield.
It all came together on one of Arsenal’s best days of the season. Finding that rhythm and flow in attacking positions is the key to them winning the Premier League.
Are Spurs the worst team in the league right now?
“Thinking about relegation doesn’t bring you anything to anybody.”
Tudor may not want to think about it, but Tottenham fans may be thinking about little else until their team starts winning again.
Spurs actually had a better weekend than many of their long-suffering supporters will have probably expected. Sure, they lost the derby, no surprise there, but Forest losing in stoppage time against Liverpool and West Ham United failing to beat Bournemouth were two very good results for Tottenham, who faced being in 17th and only two points above relegation had everything gone against them this weekend.
Relegation remains a distinct possibility and while we can’t judge the ‘Croatian Sam Allardyce’ on this performance alone, there will be concerns Spurs have not shown an instant improvement simply because Thomas Frank has left.
Igor Tudor is learning about Tottenham’s shortfalls (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
“The team is full of problems,” Tudor added, in the understatement of the weekend.
His usual approach of ranting, raving and generally firing rockets at players to get them to perform may have to be quelled a touch here, given how utterly bereft of confidence his new team look.
You also have to question whether his preferred three-at-the-back formation is necessary, seeing as Spurs don’t have enough defenders or wing-backs to play that system. Joao Palhinha at centre-back and Archie Gray at wing-back don’t feel like solutions to the squad’s injury problems.
A rare glimpse of positivity at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where the atmosphere was briefly flavoured by hope and optimism before kick-off, soon dissipated and when the clock turned to 90 minutes, the stands were almost empty.
Nine league games in 2026, no wins, four draws, 18 goals conceded… is there a team playing worse in the league? The form table says no (their nine-game record is three points worse than anyone else, with Burnley and Wolves on seven points). Spurs’ trajectory is heading towards the Championship.
They were inept in the second half against Arsenal, second in every facet of the game. Home games against Forest and Crystal Palace in March loom large. If Tudor can’t inspire improvements by then, the relegation question could become unavoidable.
How sad is Glasner’s fallout with fans?
“The biggest success is not lifting a trophy, it’s that we could give tens of thousands of our fans, south Londoners, a moment for their life — we could give them great times.”
That was Oliver Glasner after guiding Crystal Palace to FA Cup glory last year. It was an emotional press conference on an incredible day. Glasner spoke warmly of giving their supporters a break from the troubles and woes of regular life, giving them joy and happiness for a couple of hours a week. Yep, honestly, Crystal Palace.
Eight months later, a banner unfurled at Selhurst Park on Sunday read: “Fans disrespected — Glasner finished.”
A Palace banner declares Glasner “finished” (Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)
A fortuitous 1-0 win over Wolves, aided by the visitors missing a penalty and having a man sent off, ended Palace’s long wait for a first home win since November, but did nothing to improve relations between Glasner and Palace fans.
They called for him to be sacked last week, he told them to stay humble. It’s all got a bit ugly.
There can still be a happy ending here if, say, Palace win the Conference League, but that looks increasingly less likely. The disintegration of Palace and the relationship between Glasner and the club’s supporters is one of the saddest stories of the season.
Coming up this week
- It feels like almost every week in this season’s Premier League, you can take a look at the top half of the table and be surprised at how lofty a particular team is. Tonight at Hill Dickinson Stadium, it’s the turn of Everton and Manchester United to be that team. Victory would take Everton to eighth, level on points with seventh-placed Brentford and eyeing a European spot. Three points for United would put them back in fourth and within touching distance of Aston Villa, who, until recently, were in the title race.
- The Champions League knockout round play-off second legs start on Tuesday. With Newcastle effectively already through against Qarabag after their excellent 6-1 win in Azerbaijan last week, the ones to watch will be Atletico Madrid versus Club Brugge, who shared a 3-3 thriller in the first leg, and Inter, who have it all to do against Bodo/Glimt after losing 3-1 in the Arctic Circle.
- Two other Italian sides need big comebacks at home on Wednesday, with Atalanta 2-0 down to Borussia Dortmund and Juventus trailing Galatasaray 5-2. There’s also the conclusion of the all-French tie, with Paris Saint-Germain strong favourites at home to Monaco following their 3-2 victory last week. In Spain, everyone hopes the focus will be on football when Real Madrid, 1-0 up from the first leg, host Benfica. Gianluca Prestianni is eligible to play despite the ongoing investigation into his alleged racial abuse of Vinicius Junior in Lisbon, which he denies.
- The Europa League and Conference League play-offs take place on Thursday and then on Friday, there’s a West Midlands derby at Molineux when rock-bottom Wolves host third-placed Villa.