It was an unguarded comment from an Arsenal official and it came shortly after Eberechi Eze’s mural outside the Emirates Stadium had been defaced with white paint – presumably by a Tottenham fan.
It summed up the snark between the clubs and Arsenal’s delight at pipping their rivals to Eze’s signature from Crystal Palace at the end of August.
“We sign a top-class forward for £60m. They throw paint at walls.”
Eze’s mural has since been redone; it now has a caption to reinforce the storyline about the boyhood Arsenal fan coming back to his club after being released as a youngster.
“All roads lead home.” And so it did not need a joke from Thomas Frank on Friday to set up Eze vs Spurs. “Who’s Eze?” the Spurs manager had said; a classic of the fate-tempting genre.
It felt as though Eze was always going to have a say in this derby. It turned out that he shouted to every corner of the stadium.
The attacking midfielder was in the mood from the first whistle and he conjured a quite sensational hat-trick to ensure that Arsenal made the most of Manchester City’s defeat at Newcastle on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to six points.
In the heat of the moment, it felt as if all roads led to the title.
Eze’s first followed a Leandro Trossard goal and it was a moment to showcase his twinkle-toed brilliance.
There did not seem to be any space on the fringes of the Spurs area when he picked up a half-clearance but he found it, tricking this way and then that before thrashing home.
Numbers two and three were similar, Eze accepting passes in dangerous areas and picking out each corner with easy, never-in-doubt curlers and it added up to an ordeal for Frank and Spurs.
Richarlison scored a wondergoal for 3-1, flighted home from 45 yards with the Arsenal goalkeeper, David Raya, off his line but otherwise there was only gloom for Spurs.
It was the first serious setback for Frank on the road in the league but hardly the only one more generally. His switch to a back three at the start was a key detail and it seemed to reflect an acceptance of Spurs’s role – that of big underdog. It was a total disaster.
