Set-piece killer Jover part of mania for detail that separates the Gunners from Tottenham

Yes, well, of course that was going to happen. Ange Postecoglou has a particular manner on the touchline, a way of standing in the same spot for long periods of time, fists bunched in his pockets, a little hangdog and sad, like a long-suffering dad at sports day.

- Barney Ronay

As this slow-burn north London derby ticked down towards its inevitable endgame, as the sight of Arsenal's set-piece coach leaping up at the edge of Postecoglou's eyeline became ever more potent and ominous, there was a sense also of a man being chased down by the fates, like the doomed priest in The Omen, fate foretold by the shadow of the church spire sticking out of his back.

Let's face it, this is how these things work. If you say you're not interested in set pieces after losing one north London derby on set-piece goals, and not interested because you just want to play a more expansive holistic game, football logic states very clearly that you will definitely lose the next one that way, too. And that you will do so after playing really quite well, with some nice holistic-process stuff chucked in.

And so it came to pass here.

In part because it was always going to, but mainly because Arsenal made it happen. It is a good cinematic detail that Mikel Arteta's team won this game thanks to a single clean header from a corner. But zoom out a little and set-piece clarity is just part of the package, a symptom of this Arsenal era's mania for detail.

This is a minutely planned sporting entity from pressing to passing combinations. So, yes, of course that includes corners, headers and getting in the way artfully. You don't challenge for a league this way. But it certainly helps.