Piers Morgan has joked Arsenal won a key battle in the north London derby before a ball was even kicked.

The Gunners saw off fierce rivals Tottenham 1-0 on Sunday, with Gabriel bagging the winner with a bullet header from a corner in the second half.

Arsenal and Tottenham’s battle begun before the game kicked off

This mascot got things startedSky Sports

But before the players had even come out of the tunnel, battle had already begun.

That is… the battle of the mascots.

TV cameras showed the youngsters waiting for their players to come out of their respective dressing rooms to stand beside them.

Only one of the kids was there for Arsenal, with the rest all Spurs.

But that didn’t stop the tiny Gooner from ensuring Arsenal’s presence in Spurs’ backyard felt from early on, as he took on his opponents in the tunnel.

He approached one of the Spurs mascots, playfully shoving him in the back.

Smooth as you like, he then high fived an Arsenal member of staff.

He then faced the rest of Spurs’ mascots and pointed to his shirt.

Fans on social media absolutely loved the cheeky youngster – including Arsenal fan Piers Morgan.

Talk about starting them young!Sky Sports

“Even our mascots are harder than Tottenham’s…” he wrote on X, reposting the clip.

A second fan said: “give this kid a statue NOW.”

“I love it. And you must also commend the composure of the spurs mascots,” a third added.

But whilst it all a bit of fun in the tunnel, the same can’t be said for the game itself.

It was 0-0 at the break, but it was an ill-tempered 45 minutes which saw a whopping seven yellow cards dished out.

That’s the joint-most cards ever shown in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League match.

Chelsea’s win over Bournemouth earlier this weekend broke the record for the most yellow cards in a Premier League fixture.

Eight were dished out in total in north London in the end as Gunners retained derby bragging rights.