In the English Premier League, since the turn of the new century, Tottenham Hotspur have been a team continually threatening and promising to bring back the glory days at White Hart Lane. Ultimately, with numerous false dawns, they’ve been labelled the nearly men and the perennial chokers.
This recurring disappointment has been laced with resentment, as their inability to beat the so-called “Big Four” has prevented them from forcing their way into this Premier League monopoly at the top and more specifically their failure to beat their fiercest rivals in the league in over 10 years has pained them so. Instead, they’ve had to sit back and watch Arsenal in the Champions League year after year and admire their trophy cabinet.
Spurs Close Gap in North London
However, the Arsenal trophy cabinet has grown a layer of dust lately as they haven’t won a trophy in five years – despite being frequently heralded as the most attractive footballing team in the country.
This has been Spurs fans’ only comeback in the war of words between the supporters, as although the Gunners have finished higher in the league than Tottenham every season since 1994/95, it was Spurs who last picked up silverware with a 2008 Carling Cup Final win over Chelsea.
They followed this up with another Wembley final appearance in 2009, this time losing on penalties to Manchester Utd. Arsenal fans have started to grow frustrated at the lack of silverware and to make it worse, The Red Devils, who have become Arsenal’s big rivals in the Premier League era in the absence of a truly challenging Tottenham side, have won three league titles, two league cups and the Champions League in the Gunners’ barren spell.
This cannot compare to the frustrations Spurs fans feel; enduring a horrific record against Liverpool; Man Utd; Chelsea; and Arsenal since the Premier League’s inception. They have failed to beat any of these teams away from home since 1993.
It’s the Arsenal record that cuts the deepest. Prior to the game on 13th April 2010, Spurs hadn’t beaten the Gunners in the league since November 1999. Arsenal have won the title twice in that time, including clinching the championship at White Hart Lane in the “Invincibles” season.
It has been hard to stomach for Spurs fans, as it was for the players who lost to West Ham in the notorious “Lasagne-gate” weekend, when defeat with a sick squad meant they missed out on a fourth Champions League spot on the final day of the season (a position they held for four months), only for Arsenal to win their last game to claim it from them.
This ended hope of a power shift in North London and even a freak 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final against a youthful Gunners side provided only brief respite from the one-way traffic.
Tottenham No Longer Fear Arsenal
Neutrals will have heard the incredible atmosphere and got an idea of the euphoria that enveloped White Hart Lane on a stirring Wednesday evening in April, as Spurs beat Arsenal and the Tottenham faithful realised they were finally going to get the sweetest of victories. Only true fans of the respective clubs will have grasped the real significance of this result.
This was no run-of-the-mill win in a feisty derby; this was the monkey off the back; the breaking of a hoodoo; the lancing of a boil. Journalists suggested Spurs had stopped believing they could beat the old enemy in the league and that the agonising “here-we-go-again” attitude of the fans had translated into the players’ subconscious.
As the injury-time minutes ticked over and the final whistle was blown, the crowd erupted with an explosion of two synchronised noises; a celebratory roar and huge sigh of relief from the long-suffering Spurs fans; as a burden of a seemingly never-ending winless streak against the enemy had been lifted.
The feeling in the aftermath was of an inferiority complex that has started to dissolve. In both the last two seasons, Spurs have chalked up home league wins over Liverpool and after another long winless run against Chelsea; Tottenham had notched up two wins at the Lane in three seasons to go with the Wembley win in 2008.
This record further improved as they followed up this Arsenal victory with an impressive 2-1 win over table-toppers Chelsea just three days later, in one of the best weeks Spurs have enjoyed in the league for years.
The significance of the North London derby result was not just felt in the Lilywhites camp; it was another blow to Arsenal’s recent fruitless quest for trophies. Gunners’ fans have questioned whether Wenger has put pretty football before a winning team and although Spurs have pushed them hard in recent years and failed, they must fear it might not be long before they become leapfrogged by their neighbours – especially with Tottenham’s greater spending power in the last few seasons.
Also see Spurs v Arsenal Review.
Rowland Marsh - I am a 29-year-old writer living in Turnpike Lane. This is situated in the Tottenham half of the North London divide, where I have a ...
