Rumours of a power shift in North London are non-existent with their best in disarray
Two weeks after a North London derby, the season is over and the final positions have been locked into the history books. St Totteringham's day will not be celebrated for a third consecutive season which has somehow sent fans of two North London sides into an emotional frenzy but does it matter?
Because the more pertinent statement was the fact that few, barring their fans on Twitter, even remembered the fact that both teams took part in a North London derby nearly two-week ago. Fifteen days in football can often feel like a century but in a world post a lockdown with games coming at you left, right and center, it does feel like months ago did Manchester City hand Liverpool a beatdown. When in reality it was twenty four days ago and yet that’s not the point. The point is that a lot can happen in football and nearly two weeks after a CAS verdict, many in North London are struggling to figure out exactly what their clubs mean at this point in time.
Arsenal somehow put a dominant performance in their first visit to their eternal rival’s new home and yet, two mistakes handed them a loss. At the other end, Tottenham did what Jose Mourinho does so well. Parked their bus and caused little problems at the other, trying to force mistakes from an Arsenal back-line that regularly hands them out. It worked but had there been any fans inside the stadium, there’s little doubt that they would have hated that performance. This is a fanbase after all that has fallen in love with Spurs because of Mauricio Pochettino’s more expansive and entertaining brand of football but Mourinho is not the same.
He’s the kind of manager who prefers to organise and ensure that his defense is solid while letting his front-line, almost always a star-studded one, do what they do best. The Jurgen Klopp’s, Pep Guardiola’s, Arsene Wenger’s and even Pochettino’s of the world all prefer to structure their attacks with precise movements and intricate passing combinations but Mourinho prefers to place the same attention on his back-line and it works, more often than not. That opening half of football against Newcastle United and the entire game against Leicester City showed exactly what Spurs can do as they shockingly handed the opposition the ball, sat back and defended.
They effectively treated their final games as a training exercise and yet it worked, as in the end, all it took was little effort from the likes of Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso, Heung-Min Son and co to win. But in doing so, Mourinho effectively proved what Tottenham had become. An upper-mid table side part of the chasing pack for Champions League football and hopefully a league title with the same applying to their North London rivals. An integral part of the “Big Six” in the Premier League, a team that keeps the English top tier being competitive because no other league has six dominant teams.
And neither does England, at least anymore because the gap between North London and everyone else has increased ten-fold. That has seen it magnified by a global pandemic, but take apart the two rivals and one thing become obviously clear. They’re a big part of the "Big Six" and the chasing pack but yet they sit at two opposite ends of the same spectrum on the path to the same thing. The pandemic has hurt both their financial prospects although had that not been the case Tottenham may have outdone Arsenal. Their stadium plan is their way to help bridge the gap between them, Manchester United and the rest.
Will there ever be a title winner in North London again? © GettyIn a perfect world, it would have worked. A couple of title fights, NFL and rugby games, concerts and thousands of other things taking place would have seen Spurs earn enough money that would help them fuel their Premier League title dreams. But then the coronavirus walked into their path although Arsenal’s monetary issues go way way back. Handing absurdly big contracts to players that barely play football and spending record sums on wingers instead of reinforcing a slapstick crew of defenders, and countless other problems. The problem with Arsenal back in their heyday was that they tried to walk the ball into the net.
The problem with Arsenal now is that they’re like a kid at the candy store, they don’t seem to understand that spending all their, even amortized, money on a shiny new paint job is wrong, when they don’t have an engine. That’s ignoring the fact that they’re in a candy store in the first place trying to buy a coat of paint. Even within that, the fact of the matter is that neither Arsenal nor Tottenham are an elite side anymore. What they mean to the Premier League and their historic significance to English football will make them a part of the Big Six but they’re not an elite side anymore, and this is something that is becoming glaringly obvious.
Chelsea spending 60 odd million on strikers, Liverpool winning league titles and the fate of European football in North London was in the hands of the CAS, a verdict that has now gone against them, proves that. These are two clubs that many expected to be within the top four, if not top six contention. Two clubs that have not just gone off a cliff in terms of quality but have plummeted with Leicester City, Sheffield United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, rightly, ahead of them. For Arsenal, their chaos stems from problems well beyond Mikel Arteta’s reach at the moment and their fans have only just realised what Wenger was actually doing to keep the club together.
In the years since the Frenchman’s departure, the club has struggled to maintain their standards for top four football with their recruitment now at the beck and call of agents. Add that to the fact that their “supposed” trio to help ease the club out of Wenger’s era is now down to only Raul Sanllehi with questions being asked of his ability as well. Tottenham’s problems stem from the insecurity and place in the footballing world which saw them appoint Jose Mourinho. Now while that hasn’t gone according to plan so far, they are only eight months into his tenure and there are signs of improvement.
Tottenham Hotspur have finished above Arsenal in the top-flight in four consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1960s.
— Oliver Young-Myles (@OMyles90) July 21, 2020
It isn’t all bad but even the common man can see that there’s something to the Mourinho method of madness even if it does mean defending for large parts of the game against Newcastle. He’s trying to teach them how to defend and hope to hell that the likes of Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso, Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura and Eric Lamela plus their midfield, knows how to attack. That doesn’t seem to have clicked into place just yet but the hope is, at least for Tottenham fans, that it will happen. Arsenal, as it happens, are also on the same path.
The fact that Arteta has made the tough move, something Emery did as well, and dumped anyone who doesn’t give their 100% is a tremendous change from Wenger’s day. Combine that with the obvious defensive changes he has brought about while using the same error prone “stars” and the club playing a more progressive brand of football, it does bode well. Naturally, their problems with a creaking balance sheet, a non-existent creative force in midfield and their league one back-line doesn't help their cause but the hope is that with time it all changes.
The question, however, for the two North London rivals, is that once this change does take place, will it be enough? Will it be enough to catch the always evolving Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool or will North London forever be a part of the chasing pack?