Arsenal vs Tottenham: Fans think Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang copied Thierry Henry | OneFootball

Arsenal flew out of the blocks in the north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Despite an infamously terrible start to their Premier League campaign in 2021/22, the Gunners came into the weekend's clash on the back of victories over Norwich City and Burnley.

Naturally, Spurs are a much more formidable force than those aforementioned strugglers, but you wouldn't have known that based on how Arsenal swaggered into a 3-0 lead in the first-half.

Arsenal's rapid start vs Tottenham

Mikel Arteta's men carved through their local rivals like a hot knife through butter with the sort of free-flowing and dynamic football that Gooners have been crying out for all season.

And the opening goal was rather fittingly made in Hale End with Emile Smith Rowe latching on to a fantastic cutback from Bukayo Saka to get the party started at Emirates Stadium.

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Aubameyang puts Arsenal 2-0 up

However, the second goal was even more impressive with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reminding everybody why he is - deep down - one of the best centre forwards in the Premier League.

Having dropped an outrageous touch on the turn in midfield, Aubameyang was there to provide the finishing touch, too, by slotting a left-footed strike past Hugo Lloris. Check it out down below:

Did Aubameyang copy Henry?

And just to make things even better, there's good reason to think that Aubameyang channelled his inner Thierry Henry with many fans thinking that he copied the Arsenal icon's celebration.

It looked like Aubameyang made a special effort to recreate the Henry pose during his knee slide in front of the Spurs fans just like the iconic photo immortalised as a statue outside the Emirates.

Marry that to the fact that Henry himself was in attendance for the game and we feel pretty certain - just as many fans do - that Aubameyang was harking back to his iconic derby celebration.

The same pose. The same opponents. The same position in front of the Spurs fans. It can't be a coincidence, can it?

That was just the start...

And the first-half carnage didn't end there with Saka rubbing even more salt in Tottenham's wounds by putting Arsenal 3-0 up before the break, showing great tenacity to score in the penalty area.

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Aaron Ramsey Alexandre Lacazette Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Danny Welbeck

All in all, it made for an opening 45 minutes to remember for a packed Emirates crowd and it could well serve as the catalyst that Arteta has been longing for across the opening weeks of the season.

Besides, despite all the pre-match discussions about the north London derby getting weaker and weaker, make no mistake that this weekend proves that the game isn't becoming any less dramatic.

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Kobe Tong

Interested in: Arsenal, Yeovil Town, Boxing, Athletics

The world's ninth-fastest journalist. Interviewed Sir Mo Farah, Dina Asher-Smith, Eliud Kipchoge and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Author of such literary classics as 'Ranking every Premier League manager by how good they'd be on a night out'.