City play, avoiding Arsenal's first trap (8)
I believe the answer is:
plymouth
'city' is the definition.
(Plymouth is an English city)
'play avoiding arsenal's first trap' is the wordplay.
'avoiding' is a deletion indicator.
'arsenal's first' becomes 'a' (1st letter of 'arsenal').
'trap' becomes 'mouth' (trap can informally mean someone's mouth).
'play' with 'a' taken away is 'ply'.
'ply'+'mouth'='PLYMOUTH'
(Other definitions for plymouth that I've seen before include "Conservative Evangelical Christian movement" , "Laughter my ploy (anag)" , "Port of which Sir Francis Drake was once mayor" , "Mayflower departure, arrival port" , "that the Pilgrims left" .)