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Arsenal/Tottenham date on the horizon
Written by Sawyer | 7th March 2008 | 0 Comment(s)
Sunday the 9th of March is unlikely to be a day that will be remembered by many at the end of this season, especially as it falls before Easter with much football still yet to be played, but there may be more than a few Arsenal supporters raising a glass or two in honour of what they have affectionately dubbed St Totteringham Day.
For those who don't know that is the day when it becomes impossible for Tottenham to finish higher than Arsenal in the League.
Presently Spurs sits 33 points adrift of The Gunners and they have eleven games remaining, which means that if they fail to beat West Ham United at home or Arsenal avoid defeat at Wigan, Gunners fans can enjoy their small celebration.
Pre-season expectancy surrounding both clubs would suggest that not many would have thought St Totteringham Day would fall so soon, especially when only a couple of seasons ago it very nearly never happened at all; when strangely enough both North London clubs faced exactly the same opponents on the final day of the season as Spurs saw the Champions League flash before them until it disappeared down the pan!!
Of course it goes without saying that Tottenham will be more than happy with their season's efforts having collected the Carling Cup and enjoyed tremendous victories over Arsenal and Chelsea (a result JR hinted at in his pre-match article) in the process; and with a Uefa Cup place secure Juande Ramos can continue to build upon what has been a very positive start to his tenure at White Hart Lane.
Should Ramos remain at Spurs for a similar length of time to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal then maybe one day the Lily Whites can again consistently come close to their local rivals, but the invention of the Champions League has certainly made this a task that will take quite some time.
Of course older fans will remember a time before George Graham started at Arsenal when Spurs held the upper hand in North London and even though Arsenal became successful under Graham, Tottenham were still able to blunt The Gunners with that Paul Gascoigne inspired FA Cup Semi-Final victory and many will forget that they finished ahead of their rivals in the ‘93 season when Arsenal achieved the domestic Cup Double, and also suffered the ignominy of being the League's lowest goalscorers totalling only 40.
Tottenham of course achieved the feat again in '95 (the last time they did it), but Spurs fans were more concerned with celebrating Nayim's goal in the Cup Winners Cup Final over The Gunners.
The following season Arsenal managed to clamber in to a Uefa Cup spot at the expense of their neighbours thanks to two late goals from David Platt and Dennis Bergkamp against Bolton on the final day, and then the arrival of Wenger and Arsenal's ability to qualify regularly for the Champions League has seen The Gunners move clear; although the gap was so nearly bridged while Wenger was in the early process of re-building.
Next season most would expect Tottenham to be back among the teams contesting at least a Uefa Cup place and maybe more should one of the ‘Big Four' (probably Liverpool again) fall away early in the race for the title.
In reality Spurs should be every bit as good as Everton and if they can achieve a fourth place finish as they did a few seasons ago then the rest must have some hope.
For Arsenal though there would appear to be no such worries for the next few seasons at least as their performance in Milan this week would suggest that success may not be that far away; whether it comes this season or in the future.
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