North London Derby | The Battle for the Emirates

BySiddhant Lazar, SportsCafe Editor

09/01/2019

In this day and age, when derbies no longer matter as much and the world doesn’t revolve around football, the North London derby still takes precedence. Not just because of the football or the players on show, but simply because it is the derby everyone watches, no matter what they say out loud.

The North London Derby is arguably one of the Premier League’s most anticipated fixtures, and that’s not just because of the two sides’ sordid, decisive and rather dramatic history. It’s a history that spans, not just decades, but a century and it all started because one man decided to set up Arsenal and not Tottenham as London’s dominant and prestigious club after the First World War. It’s a story that might have never taken place had a few events not gone the right way, but that’s a tale for another day.

This is about the latest North London Derby, but not about its entire history. This is about just one tiny part of their sordid 100 odd year history, but a very important part nevertheless. But the tide has changed and while it may not be for good, it’s certainly changed for the better. Because for years, North London specifically has been unforgivingly cloaked in Red, but only until recently.

Until very recently when Tottenham for the first time in decades managed to prove themselves, with a rather strong side and a very impressive manager. They flushed down St Totteringham Day, and have continued to do so over the last three seasons. It’s a pretty impressive feat given just how well Arsenal dominated North London, and for Spurs it’s their race to lose.

It’s a change that took years and years to incorporate. Tottenham thought they had it when they had Gareth Bale, which they did for a while. But then a bigger club came calling, gave them an obscene amount of money and then again Spurs thought they had their super-team. But even that experiment failed, yet pieces of it run their team today. In the end, it took a failed Arsenal youth product, a former La Liga manager and for Arsenal to fail to spend their money, for Spurs to flourish.

But the arguably the biggest difference-maker, is the one man who can claim that he’s born in Arsenal but made in Tottenham. And that’s Harry Kane and we all know just who Harry Kane is. A super-striker, arguably amongst the best English players in this decade and maybe just maybe a contender for a certain Alan Shearer record that has stood for decades. It’s a measure of just how good Kane has become, that people consider him as the one man that just might be able to not just break Shearer’s record but as someone who might shatter it. It shows his transformation from a “chubby striker” to a probably one of the few complete number nines in world football.

And it goes without saying that Kane is someone that Arsenal could have definitely used, especially after losing a few classy forwards. It goes without saying that with Kane in their team, the Gunners would have had at least one league title in their hands, maybe even two or three. Maybe even a Champions League crown, but that might just be pushing their luck a bit too far.

Yet, all that proves just how good the Englishman is and given the never-ending hype surrounding talented English players, Kane is the one who broke that barrier. He was never highly regarded as a young’un but instead, he was one of the ones that grew up to be one of the best. Yet all things considered, given the tide shift, Kane’s arrival and Arsenal’s capitulation, why have Spurs failed to do well away from home against their eternal rivals?

It’s been 9 years since Tottenham last won at the Emirates Stadium, 17 years before that at Highbury, six years before that, two before that, three years before that and so on. It’s not a good record for any side in the world, let alone two sides that have fought just under 200 battles. It’s a record that baffles fans, critics and even naysayers because even with their dream team, it’s never happened.

Even with super Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and all the rest in white, it has never happened. Even with the man who simply cannot stop scoring goals, but more importantly, the man who simply cannot stop scoring against Arsenal. With 9 goals in 9 Premier League appearances, it makes him the top goalscorer in the Premier League derby, one short of the all-time record.

But for all his goal-scoring and helping Tottenham win prowess, Kane has never won a single game at the Emirates in the league. For all his impeccable record against the team that dumped him, he has never managed to drag Tottenham over the line away from home and his chance is slipping away. Arsenal for their lack of success with money have finally had a good transfer window, or so their critics say.

It’s a window that has changed the air around the Emirates, made fans, critics and even haters truly believe that they could and should be competing with the top dogs. And it’s maybe exactly what the club needs after years of spending money on the wrong players at the wrong time. But even then, their team is far from settled. Even then, Unai Emery and company have a lot of work to do before this squad can compete with the top dogs.

But it’s a squad that has made shifted the tide a little, not by much but just enough, to tear a small hole within Tottenham’s dominance and give Arsenal a chance to get back their dignity. But even then, before that happens (because it might just happen), Tottenham have a chance, a chance to end their desolate and maybe even pathetic streak at Arsenal. Because in a perfect world, with imperfect football, Harry Kane will join the prestigious and quite-frankly-impossible-to-do-in-this-day-and-age club of men who’ve only played for one single football club.

That on its own makes him a legend in Lillywhite but if he can never beat Arsenal on their own patch, was it really worth it?