Most Arsenal fans will see the title and smile and most Spurs fans will see it and frown. ‘St Totteringham’s day’ if you don’t already know, is the day when it becomes mathematically impossible for Tottenham to catch Arsenal in the league.
Throughout the upcoming season, there is a feeling it might just not come this season.
You have to go back a long way to find the last time that day never came. Around 17 years ago when Jurgen Klinsmann and Teddy Sheringham scored 39 goals between them in the league and Sir Alan Sugar owned Spurs. The 1994/95 season was one to forget for Arsenal fans as their side finished a dismal 12th place. Other bad news came in the same when George Graham was sacked in February after nearly nine years in charge, following revelations that he had accepted an illegal payment of £425,000 from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge relating to the purchases of Pal Lydersen and John Jensen three years earlier.
Roll on 17 seasons and it just might happen again. This could be the season when Tottenham finally finish above Arsenal once again. Look at the two teams last season and you could argue they were very evenly matched with only six points separating them. Tottenham managed to pip Arsenal in the head-to-head games in the league with a 3-3 draw at White Hart Lane following a fantastic 3-2 win at the Emirates Stadium; the first time they’ve won away at their rivals in 17 years.
Looking forward to the new season; the changes in the two teams.
Arsenal are seemingly on the verge of letting Cesc Fabregas finally go to Barcelona. Gael Clichy has departed for Manchester City and the futures of Samir Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner remain unresolved. Gervinho, Carl Jenkinson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have been brought in. To me that doesn’t look like a team that are firing for the title or hoping for a long Champions League run. It reads like a team that might struggle to find the top four this season, with all the other teams around them having done much better in the transfer market to bring in new faces while most importantly; keeping their prized assets.
As for Spurs, they have knocked back three bids for one of their star players in Luka Modric and kept hold of the rest of the squad that finished just behind Arsenal last season. Granted they’ve not went out and spend millions and millions on new talent but it’s obviously more important for Spurs to keep hold of their big name than it is to bring anyone else in. They have managed to tighten up defensively with the addition of Brad Friedel. The goalkeeper, who boasts 428 Premier League appearances to his name, has seen and done it all in the Premier League and will shore up matter for Spurs.
With both teams in Europe this season, Arsenal in the Champions League and Tottenham in the Europa League, it could also play a big part in who finishes above who. Arsenal may want to rest players in the Premier league to try and get as far as possible in the Champions League whereas Spurs have already stated their intention to go the other way and play weaker teams in Europe and keep their big guns for the Premier League.
For me, next season Spurs fans won’t have to wait for ‘St Totteringham’s day’ to come. This time it will be Arsenal who will slip below Tottenham. Come May, it will be Tottenham fans’ who will be celebrating.
