Morning all.
Hopefully you’re still enjoying the warm glow of Sunday’s game. I can’t lie, and I know everyone’s feeling on this particular fixture is different, but it’s one I never look forward to – despite our vastly superior record in it. Which is a bit mad, because I’m not Tottenham adjacent like many of our fans. I don’t live in North London. If it doesn’t go well, I don’t have to deal with their fans in work or in my personal life (I don’t have any close friends who are fans of them). I certainly don’t engage with any of their fans online, although for years there was an American Sp*rs fan who would try and bait me on Twitter all the time, but I never once replied and I think he got bored and stopped. I have no idea, maybe he’s still at it. I hope so actually, because what a colossal waste of his own time that would be.
The North London derby, for me, is thing to be endured until it’s a thing to be enjoyed, which comes at the final whistle. Even at 3-1 up, and understanding they were obviously inferior to us in every aspect, when the away fans had some fun and started OLEing every Arsenal pass, I couldn’t find it in me to have a laugh at that. When David Raya made that incredible save, I thought ‘Oooof, imagine if that had gone in after those OLEs!’.
Which is my issue, I get that, but once it’s done and dusted and the points are in the bag, there’s a sense of relief that adds a little icing to the cake of the North London derby win. I don’t quite know how to explain it. It’s like if you, for some inexplicable reason, put your head between some railings and you thought you were stuck, but then you wiggle your way free without anyone seeing and have avoided the humiliation of waiting for a passer-by to ask for help.
There’s no good reason to stick your head between some railings, we all know that, and there is good reason for the North London derby which, this season, has netted Arsenal 6 points across both games, while also adding +6 to our goal difference, with 5 of them coming from a man who came within a (horrible) whisker of being one of their players. In this incredibly tight title race, Man City have taken just 1 point from Spurs this season, and there’s the potential for these games to be critical in the final outcome. They obviously have some bigger fish to try in terms of their own priorities. Relegation is not necessarily likely, but far from impossible, but whatever happens to that situation, there would surely be a level of miserable introspection for their fans in knowing that if we go on to win the title, they’ve played a crucial part in it.
Obviously Arsenal success is far more important to me than the failings of any other team. I wouldn’t swap any trophy for their relegation, but if it did happen, I don’t think I’d stop laughing for a week. Or many weeks. I might even get my head stuck between railings on purpose and when someone asked why I did that, I’d say ‘It doesn’t matter, because next season we’re going to play Middlesbrough’, and they’d wander off and eventually the fire brigade would come along with an angle grinder or something and get me free.
They might even just leave me there, forever. Eventually I’d calcify in that very spot, perhaps some of my friends might put up a plaque, and many years later some kid will ask his dad what that weird ornament is, and he’ll say ‘That was a silly man who got his head stuck in the railings’, and he’ll explain exactly why and they’ll both go off down the road having great laugh. At Tottenham, of course, not me. I’m just a statue at that point. Nothing can hurt my feelings.
Anyway, we have a nice free week, and I don’t quite know what to do with that. Perhaps I’ll check the news and see what’s going on in the world.
*A few minutes later…*
Well, absolutely fuck that. Still, at least my head is not between any railings right now, and that’s the best any of us can hope for.
Here’s a bit of extra reading for you, Lewis Ambrose examines the derby from a tactical viewpoint, and looks at big performances from four players who made a real difference. And if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, a very fun Arsecast Extra is below, including some fantastic tempting of fate from their stadium announcer – you can see it here in this video (thanks SilverArrows47 on Bluesky for sending this through 👊).
Oooops!
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning, have a good one folks.
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