"In the North London Cup…"

Article by e-Spurs Correspondent Paul Glanfield

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The FA Cup looks theirs to lose, so let’s make sure they can’t do the double up the Arsenal…

Our season hangs by the merest single thread. With the performance now required at Benfica looking completely beyond the capabilities of the current side, any small hopes we can harvest that this season will not be a total disaster now boil down to the North London Derby. It’s hard to think of a worse time for this fixture to have fallen. Out of luck and out of sorts, the season looks to finally be heading the way most of us have been dreading since things started looking a little ropey earlier in the campaign.

The positives? Well, firstly we know Arsenal are hampered by a few injuries. That at least gives us a chance and on paper at least there should be very little to choose between the teams comes kick off. Secondly, they may be a little nervous that this game could well and truly kill their title dream. Thirdly, although unlikely, some of their players may already be a little distracted by the looming cup run glory.

Beyond that if we can view this as a chance to turn the tide. If United defeat Liverpool at Old Trafford earlier in the day and we can actually beat Arsenal, suddenly we sit 3 points behind those two teams. Even acknowledging their games in hand apiece, at least that would give us something to cling onto for the next couple of weeks. We play Liverpool in a fortnight and thereafter our season looks far more comfortable in terms of the fixture list. There can be no doubt however, that we are now firmly reliant on one of our top four rivals having an implosion of Tottenham proportions if we are to somehow do the unthinkable.

The more likely scenario is probably that we will struggle to hold onto 5th place at this rate, let alone make a charge for 4th. We need United to do us a favour on Sunday but then continue with their own struggles moving forwards, although for me what United do is somewhat irrelevant from now on. If United manage to overhaul us it is unlikely to be in the battle for 4th spot and losing out on 5th is not something to be overly concerned about.

Europa League qualification for next season, if we can achieve it, brings with it the prospect of another route into the Champions League. After the Benfica meltdown it is hard to envisage us having it in us to win the competition next season either, however at least this new prize of a path to the promised land gives the competition a far higher degree of importance moving forwards. I had always presumed we would win the Europa League this season for that very reason, that it was the last time the winners would not qualify for the Champions League. To my surprise that prophecy now looks very much doomed, although you come to wonder if you should ever be surprised around anything Tottenham related looking doomed.

As an individual I have had a season ticket now for 9 seasons, since Edgar Davids rode into town on the back of Martin Jol way back in the days where Mido was a fine athletic specimen who hadn’t eaten all of the pies yet. Defoe was still being tipped to become our answer to Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane was still the Spurs legend in the making that defecting to Liverpool stripped him of being and ‘England’s Number One’ was giving us a thumbs up every 30 seconds throughout each fixture. Our obsession with 4th place began that very season, and the journey has been good so far, albeit with more downs than ups. How we yearn for another ‘Crouch Moment’, yet how it always seems to swing the other way.

Our obsession with the end result has almost annihilated the need for the journey. The twists and turns of a season are unenjoyable if the end result is we finished 5th again. No one is interested in 5th anymore, no-one cares if we win this game, win that game, but ultimately we don’t come 4th. Our obsession with 4th has become a dangerous liaison, a flirtation which is out of touch with the cold reality that we have only finished 4th on two meagre occasions since the Premier League’s inception. Since our solitary season in the Champions League, we have barely moved in terms of our standing as a club – incapable of bridging the gap, reluctant to surrender back into mid-table obscurity.

In terms of North London derbies, it took a while, but we finally started clocking up victories at the Lane in this fixture, to the point where it’s now no longer hoped but expected that we will defeat the Woolwich crowd every time we meet. We have felt we have the superior side for several seasons now, yet contrived to finish below our inferior neighbours each time – eventually the screw will turn back the other way and that’s what we all dread we are witnessing now – an Arsenal side still looking up at the title, a Spurs side teetering on the blink of the abyss.

We must be brave, in the stands as well as on pitch, and if we are then maybe we will emerge from Sunday with the enemy in our sights and their title quest all but over. Confidence is low but games like this can mend a broken side in just 90 minutes. The thought of us conceding early is not worth contemplating, but if it happens keep the faith. Our season hangs by this thread.

COYS

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