diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0627c94c7..4ec6a2cc8 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ optional-dependencies.dev = [
     "mock",
     "pygments>=2.7.2",
     "requests",
-    "setuptools",
     "xmlschema",
 ]
 urls.Changelog = "https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/changelog.html"
diff --git a/testing/acceptance_test.py b/testing/acceptance_test.py
index ac7fab3d2..9b03ad088 100644
--- a/testing/acceptance_test.py
+++ b/testing/acceptance_test.py
@@ -1464,7 +1464,7 @@ def test_issue_9765(pytester: Pytester) -> None:
         }
     )
 
-    subprocess.run([sys.executable, "setup.py", "develop"], check=True)
+    subprocess.run([sys.executable, "-Im", "pip", "install", "-e", "."], check=True)
     try:
         # We are using subprocess.run rather than pytester.run on purpose.
         # pytester.run is adding the current directory to PYTHONPATH which avoids