Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal. It’s a fixture that stirs all sorts of emotions, with the battle for supremacy in north London having been fought twice a year from time immemorial. There was the 4-4 Aaron Lennon game, the 5-4 at White Hart Lane and comeback wins from 2-0 down at the Emirates for both sides between 2010 and 2012.
Headline stuff, if you live in that pocket of London squeezed between Hackney and Camden.
For everyone else in the country, it’s fifth versus first. Which is about as important as it has been in recent times. For too long, these two have had no say in anything that really matters at the top of the league.
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Arsenal are the front-runners for the Premier League title for the first time since they imploded in 2008 having taken a five-point lead with them on a February trip to Birmingham City. That infamous 2-2 draw was the first of an eight-game run which featured just one win as the Gunners fell apart and Manchester United won the league.
Spurs have been of even less concern to the top of the table in their time, with their inability to keep with Leicester City in 2015-16 a matter of real regret for Mauricio Pochettino’s side and their supporters.
Indeed, that season was a moment which embarrassed both north London clubs in many ways. Among the ‘big six’ Manchester City were a team in transition in Manuel Pellegrini’s final months in charge, United were a dull shadow of themselves under Louis van Gaal, Liverpool sacked Brendan Rodgers after a poor start and Jurgen Klopp’s attentions were soon focused on a run to the Europa League final, while Chelsea fired Jose Mourinho at Christmas when languishing in 16th place.
The way seemed clear for one of Arsenal and Spurs to really grasp the nettle and make the title their own, but both took a comical route to failure. The Gunners led at the turn but won only seven of their last 18 matches, while Tottenham memorably came “third in a two-horse race” by winning just four of their final 11 to allow Leicester to take the honours with the second-lowest points total among champions in the last two decades.
Arsenal fans took great delight in finishing above their local rivals for a 21st straight season, but that overlooked the fact their club had missed their best chance post-2004 to win another title. And those chants were short-lived anyway, with Spurs now having finished higher in the league in the six subsequent campaigns. But why should everyone else care?
Sure, 31 editions of the north London derby have taken place since the last goalless draw in February 2009. Yes, there have been 33 goals in the last 10 clashes, and you don’t have to dig too far into the archives to find 4-2s, 5-2s, 4-1s, 3-3s and those 4-4 and 5-4 results mentioned earlier. But what is the extra appeal outside of the 17 square miles of Haringey and Islington if neither are competing for the titles that matter?
Sunday’s derby carries the most weight of any Spurs-Arsenal fixture since March 2016, when they sat second and third respectively in behind Leicester. But if the rest of the country is to truly buy into this rivalry once more, then Mikel Arteta’s renaissance cannot be a one-season wonder and Antonio Conte has to start getting more out of Spurs than the occasional 45-minute performance.
Otherwise, this will be just another big-hype, low-substance fixture in a Premier League season in which 378 other games can claim to be every bit as important. And that is not the sort of tagline two supposedly massive clubs would want for their big day out.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
