One of the most memorable St Totteringham's Days for Arsenal fans came in the season when Wenger's side leapfrogged Spurs on the final day of the season. Mauricio Pochettino's side needed only to avoid defeat against already-relegated Newcastle United in order to finish the season ahead of their rivals, but astonishingly lost while the Gunners beat Aston Villa The earliest St Totteringham's Day happened on March 9, when Arsenal completed the feat with nine games remaining.
They actually did it with 10 games to spare in during the year of The Invincibles , but the date itself was March 13, - four days later than in The season saw the latest ever St Totteringham's Day with the Gunners finishing ahead of Spurs in the final game of the season on May There does not appear to be an accepted Tottenham equivalent to Arsenal's St Totteringham's Day, though Spurs fans undoubtedly take some pleasure in finishing above their fiercest rivals in the league.
When Tottenham 'cancelled' St Totteringham's Day in , the Telegraph indicated that the name "St Arse's Day" had been mooted as a possible name for an equivalent unofficial feast day. However, that doesn't seem to have caught on. Part of the reason St Totteringham's Day became a thing was Arsenal's dominance during the late s into the s when Gunners fans became accustomed to finishing ahead of Spurs.
Spurs need to win Sunday's derby to give themselves a fighting chance of catching Chelsea. Anything else is secondary. While it's true they would benefit from ridding themselves of a monkey that has been on their back for more than two decades, it's no longer the great ape it once was. Arsenal today are more like those friendly chimps that used to brew up in the PG Tips ads, always happy to help out a neighbour. Tottenham probably are 14 points better than Arsenal, which is not quite the same as being 14 points better off.
It's not the vagaries of form separating them but ability. Spurs have better players, a better team and a better manager. It's that simple. On the final day of last season, when Tottenham's inexplicable implosion at Newcastle United allowed Arsenal fans to drink in another St Totteringham's Day, a wry grin enveloped Wenger's face. As many Arsenal fans would vouch, Wenger has an uncanny knack for not letting things catch up with him.
Those with banners would argue the sack is one of them. Behind the smile, though, Wenger is far too astute a man not to have been acutely aware that, contrary to what the record book says, Tottenham overtook his team last season.
Both managers have created sides in their own images. The problem for Arsenal is Pochettino is the younger and better-looking man. Arsenal more resemble the portrait in the attic than Dorian Gray, with Wenger's vanities and foibles never more evident than when his team takes to the field.
Not that he remains anything but a warm, generous, captivating and highly intelligent man. As many people would probably vote for him as they would the other dyed-in-the-wool Arsenal fella running in the general election, but then governing the country probably isn't half as tough as guaranteeing UEFA Champions League football season after season after season ad infinitum.
Or, as Wenger put it recently, per Paul Wilson of the Guardian : "I have done it for 20 years, and it looked always like nothing. Suddenly it becomes important, so I am quite pleased people realise it is not as easy as it looks.
Wenger's switch to three at the back in recent matches feels a bit like your dad stepping out in a pair of Nike Air Max, but he'd argue for all the fawning over Pochettino's tactical innovation, there's still probably more chance of Arsenal winning silverware this season than Tottenham. An FA Cup final victory over Chelsea would represent an English-record 13 triumphs for the club, while a seventh for Wenger would make him the most successful manager in the competition's history.
Still, there's an inescapable sense of building at Tottenham. Quite literally, as each passing week White Hart Lane slowly becomes a living relic as the club's new double-the-capacity stadium starts to swallow it, brick by brick. Amid this possible new cycle of dominance hatching in north London, Dele Alli's second consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year award seems another portent of progress. In five of the past six seasons, a Tottenham player has won the award.
Pertinent, perhaps, is that the last winner before Spurs' pre-eminence was Jack Wilshere. While all of the aforementioned players have progressed from being promising to genuine stars, Arsenal's own band of Peter Pan fledglings seem to have grown old without growing up. With Wenger showing no sign of getting the hook, it's hard to envisage significant improvement among those who have become stale under his tenure.
Theo Walcott enduring a steady stream of criticism of late from a section of his own supporters, along with Wilshere—on loan at Bournemouth—hobbling off at White Hart Lane with a broken leg to an uncertain future, paints a fairly compelling portrait of how Arsenal's not-so-young English talents are faring in comparison to Spurs'.
Hector Bellerin is another to have gone backward, which is ironic given it's a direction he's shown only sporadic interest in recently. Nonetheless, such is football's fixation for wanting tomorrow yesterday, should Alli make it an unprecedented hat-trick of the same award next season, it would likely be seen as quiet stagnation. A long period without a St Totteringham's day ends in A dreadful time to be a Gooner.
We only manage one St Totteringam's day. Forgive me for not listing the full table. Arsenal have been above Spurs in the league on 66 Occasions. Spurs have come above Arsenal 30 times. On the times when Spurs and Arsenal are in the same division which has always been the top flight Arsenal lead 51 to The arithmetic mean number of games after which Spurs have been unable to reach Arsenal is The mode is 38 5 times , with 32 second 3 times.
The geometric mean is The range is 9 games from 29 to 38 , and the standard deviation is 3. So we usually beat Spurs with roughly 6 games to go, mostly with games, but when they're doing well it goes to the wire before we beat them. There have been 35 St Totteringham's days. That puts our 19 seasons in a row in perspective. Well done Spurs. The longest gap is from 22 March until 6 April At 18 years, 15 days this is a long time.
During this time Spurs spent eight years in Division 2, and we had seven seasons lost to WW2, Spurs finished above Arsenal twice.
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