What a win. What a game. What a weekend.

I got home from the Islington Sports Bar and Grill late last night and re-watched the game. I was buzzing throughout, kebab in hand and content in the knowledge that I had booked this morning off work.

Tottenham fans, as Tottenham fans do, got ideas above their station in the week leading up to the game.

They forgot that they are not a big club, that they had gone a decade without a trophy and had failed to win at the Emirates in the Premier League since February 2010.

Spurs fans believed that two years of finishing above Arsenal made them the superior team. Whilst this temporary rise in form did lead them to qualify for the Champions League at Arsenal’s expense twice, Arsenal always held the upper ground. Always had the class.

A few weeks ago we sang about having our Arsenal back. A few in the media derided this. But yesterday showed exactly what fans were singing about.

The Emirates was rocking. The ground and fans often singled out as being quiet, when the reality is it is no worse than White Hart Lane (or Wembley), Anfield, West Ham or Old Trafford. Yesterday the Arsenal fans were the 12th man.

And on the pitch the players gave as much as the fans did.

When Spurs equalised, Eric Dier ran towards the Arsenal fans shushing them. Stephan Lichtsteiner stuck one on the half dozen Spurs players celebrating. One man standing toe to toe with them.

Then all of a sudden we saw something that had been missing for years at The Arsenal. Passion and togetherness of the players.

The usually quiet Aaron Ramsey got himself involved, looking to swing it out with Dier. Then all of a sudden, from nowhere, youngsters Matteo Guendouzi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles came out of no where to back up their mates.

They were not wearing bibs, they were not warming up. They were sitting on the bench and legged it down the touchline. Guendouzi sticking one on Dele Alli will only further increase his place as a fans favourite.

From 1-nil up Arsenal very quickly went 2-1 behind. At half time, no one was that worried.

Arsenal had dominated the game, unlucky to not have scored 2 or 3. It was only a Son dive that separated the teams.

Son showed Tottenham lacked class throughout the game. He was throwing himself to the floor at every opportunity. Like there were banana skins on the pitch and he kept slipping on them.

Banana skins. Another example of Spurs lack of class. The fan should be banned for life. Sacked from work. I actually hope the black lads who support Spurs stick one on him, make it clear he is not welcome anymore.

Back to Son.

The response to his dive has been odd. There was no contact, yet people still say it was a penalty. He threw himself to the ground. He was not taking evading action. He cheated and should be banned.

In the second half, Unai Emery made changes. Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette came on.

It highlights where Arsenal are these days that we had players of the quality of Lacazette and Ramsey on the bench.

The rest of the game is a bit of a blur. Arsenal won 4-2.

There were a couple more flash points. And everytime Spurs tried shithousing, Arsenal players were there, en masse, backing each other. It was a team spirit we had not seen since Martin Keown, Ashley Cole, Lauren and Thierry Henry stuck one on Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The cream eventually rises to the top. And that is what happened yesterday.

Tottenham being better than Arsenal for 2 seasons did not change decades of dominance. Of one club winning trophies regularly and the other winning 2 League Cups in 27 years.

Moving forward, this game could kill Spurs. They are not a very good side, and will end up closer to Manchester United than the top 4.

Arsenal are 19 games unbeaten, making the media and pundits eat their words, and are back.

We really are back.

Keenos

No league title in 57 seasons
No FA Cup success in 27 seasons
Over a decade without any sort of trophy

Tottenham’s continual portal of themselves as one of English footballs elite clubs is no more than a fraudulent claim.

They are an average sized club who have not seen any real success for decades. 2 League Cups 27 years is not the sign of a successful, elite club.

The media continually use the phrase Big 6 to describe Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham. It is supposed to be an all encompassing phrase, grouping the teams as one, raising them above anything else in English football.

But the phrase is odd, because why are Tottenham actually in the Big 6?

They have no recent success whatsoever to boast about. They are the only side in Big 6 to have not won a trophy in the last decade. The fact that the media highlight the likes of Arsenal for not winning trophies, but defend Spurs lack of silverware shows that they do not see Arsenal and Tottenham as equals.

When it comes to league titles, Tottenham are 15th in the list of most wins. They are behind the likes of Everton, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Wolves, Huddersfield and Blackburn.

The year before their second and last league title, Burnley won their second title. The year before that, Wolves won their 3rd.

Currently they sit on the same amount of league titles as Preston North End, Derby, Burnley and Portsmouth.

And yet they position themselves as equals to Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool – who have 51 league titles between them; and Manchester City and Chelsea who have won 8 of the last 14.

They have neither of the historic success, or recent success, to call themselves an elite club.

But they have finished top 6 consistently over the last 10 years. Well done. But just because you finish in the top 6, does not put you on par with the other 5 sides.

We have already seen how far they lag behind in terms of silverware, but lets also look at the other barometer of success the media often use. Finishing top 4 and making the Champions League.

Tottenham have qualified for the Champions League just 4 times in their history. This weeks victory over Inter Milan means they have now won as many Champions League games as Nicklas Bendtner.

What they are doing now – being also ran’s in the league, not winning any trophies; is not more than what Newcastle achieved in the 90s or Leeds in the 00s.

They talk a good game do Tottenham. They have the 62,000 stadium, deliberately built a couple of hundred seats bigger than Arsenal’s. As if that then made them a bigger club than Arsenal. They talk about setting attendance records at Wembley and putting the pressure on Chelsea. They will probably try and claim Harry Redknapp’s success in the jungle as their own. But the reality is, they are not one of England’s elite sides.

Since their last trophy – the 2008 League Cup – the likes of Swansea City, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Leicester City have won trophies.

Since 1961, Ipswich Town, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Leeds United, Arsenal, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Leicester have all been crowned England’s best team.

For Tottenham to put themselves (or be put their by the media) on par with teams who have consistently won trophies – either historically or recently – is just fraudulent.

A final thought.

A Spurs on Twitter said to me that the sign of success is consistently winning trophies, and that Arsenal winning 3 FA Cups in the last 5 years was not consistent success.

You have to go back to the 1960s to find a 5 year period of success when Tottenham won more than 3 trophies (4 trophies won in the early 60s). So by their own fans admission, Tottenham have only ever had one period of success in their history.

They are not one of England’s elite clubs. A complete lack of success this century. They are not a Big 6, they are simply currently best of the rest. The team performing the best out of all the mid size clubs in English football (likes of Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle, Leeds).

It should be of no surprise that they think highly of themselves and are deluded.

They mocked Arsene Wenger, despite him winning more during his “downfall” that Spurs have won in 27 years. They acted like finishing above their rivals twice in a quarter of a century meant anything more than a temporary blip.

With an over budget, delayed stadium, it would not surprise me to see Tottenham return to the mid-table mediocrity that has defined their last 50 years.

Tottenham – try and win a trophy before you consider yourself on par with England’s most successful clubs.

Keenos