No recriminations from Tottenham this year – which makes a change

By Tony Attwood

I was seriously expecting Tottenham to do something this past weekend – not on the pitch but off it.

Last time they were trying to go above us in the league and matters came down to the last game we played the final match at Highbury against Wigan we got the result needed.   Tottenham however played a game against little West Ham and then said that they lost because of some pasta they had bought at a hotel.  There was even suggestion that the chef was an Arsenal fan, and he deliberately poisoned the Tiny Totts squad.

What Tottenham did not report was that the Health Protection Agency subsequently did a proper investigation of the London Marriott Hotel in West India Quay and found that these allegations were unfounded.  I don’t know if the London Marriott sued Tottenham, or if Tottenham settled out of court, but the damage to the hotel was significant.

What Tottenham were actually suffering from – apart from being Tottenham – was the norovirus.

Creating stories is of course necessary if you run a club that doesn’t win the league much (although they did win it 51 years ago and still cherish the memory) and you have neighbours who are now looking forward to being one of only three clubs in Europe with 15 consecutive years in the Champions League.But Tottenham’s approach to Arsenal goes back much, much further.

In 1913 Tottenham led a most vigorous campaign against Arsenal moving to Highbury.  They knew that the Football League and FA both agreed that they had no control over where clubs played their matches (this had been reaffirmed at the AGM of the League as recently as 1910 when there was a proposal for Arsenal to ground share with Fulham) but still they allied themselves with the “Highbury Defence League” in protesting about Arsenal’s arrival in the area.

They also called for an Emergency General Meeting of the Football League, but the league clubs would hear nothing of it and voted it out, leaving Tottenham politically isolated.  They then worked with others to persuade Islington Council to pass a vote saying they would do everything possible to stop Arsenal moving to the borough.

And yet it was pointless – not only did Arsenal duly arrive at the Gillespie Road ground 99 years ago, the crowds of both clubs shot up because of the intense excitement in football that was created by having a couple of major clubs a couple of miles apart.  Arsenal didn’t steal Tottenham’s crowd – Tottenham’s crowd increased.

Tottenham tried again in 1919 – this time with a much greater and more long lasting PR success (although with no success in achieving their prime objective) when Arsenal applied for a place in the first division – having spent the final two pre-war years in the second division.

A more detailed version of events is told on the Arsenal History Society blog but in essence it ran like this.

At the end of the 1914/15 season (the last before the cessation of the league for the First World War) Manchester United and Liverpool were involved in match fixing.  As a result of one fixed game Manchester United got the point that saw them finish out of the bottom two of the league – Liverpool finished mid table.

The final league position for the bottom three was

  • Manchester U 30 points
  • Chelsea 29 points
  • Tottenham H 28 points

Thus had Man U not fixed the game with Liverpool  Chelsea would have stayed up and Man U gone down.  Tottenham’s position was unaffected.

A commission of enquiry was held and Man U and Liverpool found guilty.  Their fate however was not decided because of the war.

When the League looked at this again before the start of the first post-war season it was felt it was unfair to punish clubs for events pre-war – especially as some of the players affected were now war heroes, so there was no mood to do anything – even though this was not the first example of corruption from Liverpool.

But, on the other hand, Chelsea were clearly going to be relegated to the second division utterly unfairly.

By March 1919, with no league football going on but the country at peace, the weekly football magazines like Athletic News were full of the story once again, and the general argument was that Chelsea must stay in the first division.

At the same time there was a vote to expand the first division from 20 to 22 clubs.   This expansion had happened several times before and the process was clearly known – clubs from the second division and the relegated clubs from the first division (Chelsea and Tottenham) could apply for the two extra places in the first division.  The top two from the second division of 1914/15 would automatically go up.

But so strong was Chelsea’s case, following the Liverpool/Man U match fixing scandal, that it was agreed for the one and only time in the history of the league, that a club be given a place in a higher league without a vote.  That left one extra place in the first division, and as always happened the chairmen of the league voted.

The Arsenal had finished fifth in the second division – and they won the vote ahead of Tottenham, Barnsley, Wolverhampton W, Birmingham and Hull – and ever since Tottenham has suggested the vote was fixed.   But in all these votes (both in terms of promotion and over the issue of which clubs in the bottom division should drop out and be replaced by a non-league team) where you finished in the league was always less important than other facts.

Arsenal’s reputation as a club, in 1919, was extraordinarily high.  They had built a modern stadium, they had pioneered the introduction of both professional and league football in the south of England, and they had invented the whole concept of away travel.  The club was placed right by railway stations that gave easy access from other parts of the country, and they got big crowds.

Tottenham’s reputation was at an all time low.  They had finished bottom of the league, and they had led the abortive campaign to try and stop Woolwich Arsenal from moving out of Plumstead.  What’s more they had also campaigned long and hard against Chelsea being given a place in the league in 1905 – which had alienated Chelsea (obviously) and some other chairmen who still resented the behaviour of Tottenham in 1913.

So it was that Arsenal got the vote.  The process was exactly the same as that used in 1892 for the creation of the second division and from 1892/3 onwards (when Bootle lost their place in the second division after coming five from bottom).  Indeed, it happened as recently as 1971/2 when Barrow lost their place in the 4th division, despite having Stockport and Crewe below them (Crewe that year were actually 8 points below Barrow – but 4th division clubs hated the long journey to Barrow, and so voted for ease of reach, rather than league position).

And maybe we should also remember that Tottenham got their place in the football league after coming 8th in the Southern League the previous season – the seven clubs above them not being promoted.  Maybe we should make a fuss about that!

But no, that would be silly.

The full story of Arsenal’s move to Highbury (and indeed the whole story of the founding of Arsenal as a league club) is covered in Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football which will be published in about six weeks time.  If you would like to have your name on this book (was covers this and many other previously untold Arsenal stories) you can do so by becoming a sponsor of the volume.  There is no charge – you just have to order a copy of the book now.   Details are here.

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70 Replies to “No recriminations from Tottenham this year – which makes a change”

  1. So proud to be an Arsenal fan, very convincing win today, scoring 3 cracking goals against a quality keeper….

    Finished 1 point above a side who we would beat with our eyes closed 10 years ago…..

    Oh and we got 3rd which is champions league and spurs got 4th which is champions league…

    Yeh great something to celebrate this morning…

    I dont care about spurs I care about Arsenal and if it wasnt for RVP we would be 10th I dont want us to be happy with the season because then Wemger will feel that he doesnt need to strengthen

  2. I love it when sour little,pettyminded twats like you take the time to write about us,it makes me laugh with my morning coffee.Afterall Woolwich had such a great season didn’t you? Is that why you moved into your brand new shiny stadium to finish third and another trophyless season??:)

    You finished one point above a team who holds a stadium just over half of what you have,and you take the time to snigger,oh times have changed,no more challenging for trophies for Woolwich,you lot are doing cartwheels over finishing above Spurs,well done.

    So tell me what’s going to change in the summer,another Metersacker type signing,Hitchin boy wilshere back into the fold,yes I can see that changing things for the forthcoming season,you’ll definitely be challenging for third again,when do you think you’ll be knocked out of the cups though?? February,March??
    Let’s face it,both teams are rubbish in the great scheme of things and that isn’t going to change anytime soon is it??

  3. Happy St Totteringham day my beloved Gunners 😀 we did it .
    I just want to comment on Wenger holding Pat Rice WOW !! two legends and i send my highest respect to both of them who loved the team and dig soo hard to make the club reputation that hard. very very very emotional pic of Wenger holding Rice it showed how Wenger loves the team and is passionate and Rice we will miss you , a true legend who served the club for 44 years .

  4. The football supporter is a strange breed. I support Spurs. I am neither proud nor ashamed, it’s just a fact. I’m happy when they have success and less so when they don’t. I’m fickle to a degree which makes me typical of, pretty much, all football supporters.
    But I never quite understand the lengths some, no many, fans go to distort the truth to fit with a belief.
    Your headline suggest Spurs, the club,seek to blame others for their shortcomings. Well there may be occasions that they do. But the example you gave about “Lasagnagate” was 100% media driven. At no time at all did the club suggest it was anything sinister.
    And this accusation is made by a supporter of a club whose manager defines the art of blaming others. The blinkered viewpoint baffles me.
    As the fickleness, this Wenger who is being lauded by all and sundry (quite rightly so IMO) was the focus of blame by a multitude of Arsenal fans for your team’s shortcomings earlier in the season. By the way much as the case of our own manager so we’re no better or worse in that regard.
    A sense of balance may not go amiss.

  5. I think we need to bring you a little perspective here. Firstly well done for finishing 3rd – abive Tottenham and that cannot be denied. However, I don’t think Tottenham have made any excuses this season. There has been no moaning about things on and off the pitch – they have got on with it and in fairness been one of the most entertaining teams in terms of football played – yet again. But I would like you to bear in mind that up until a certain point, the team was rubbing shoulders with Man City and Man Utd. Now if you consider the Modric saga at the start of the season, Harry Redknapp having heart surgery, Harry Redknapp spending 2 weeks in court for tax evasion, Harry Redknapp being linked with the England job for several weeks during the season…..then Spurs have done pretty well to hold on to 4th spot AND finish a single point behind Arsenal. Spurs have been dignified – they have stated that these things have not effected them and they have just got one with it…..I for one am pretty sure that has such matters mnot gone on then posts such as this one would be a little more diplomatic. Well done Arsenal for finishing 3rd, but time will soon tell….you are not the only team in North London 🙂

  6. You goons are really getting obsessed with us,for a team who are so superior you certainly write about us a lot,and as for your st Totteringham day,didn’t happen did it? I always thought it was supposed to be the last day we could mathematically finish above you,but then you’ve always bent or broken the rules to suit yourselfs.

  7. ahh, arsenal fans happy with beating Spurs. How the mighty have fallen.. and I guess Carrick vomitting on the pitch was made up too. Any way thank our dodgy ex keeper Fulop for your 3rd place

  8. You guys have so many chips on your shoulders you should go into the fast food business. Get over it and try concentrating on winning some trophies instead of just finishing above spurs.

  9. Abe, wasn’t this to be your year?
    The best Tottenham team in 51 years and still could not get in front of the “worst Arsenal team ever”….

  10. Vic, read the headline of this site.

    Those tossers who always moan about Wenger and our players are not welcome over here. You will see them on occasions as we like to have a laugh every now and then 😉

    Oh and we do like to make a bit of fun about Tottenham. After all imagine you would have finished 3rd this season. The DVD would be in the shop by now I think. 😉

    If you would have finished above us you would be celebrating as if you won the league. As you did for a very long part of the season. Well many of you did. But they celebrated too soon.

  11. @Walter

    I recall “mind the Gap”, oh well I’m sure if the totts weren’t so far up their own shit holes in Feb then they would of won the the league.

    Forget about the DVD it would of been a bank holiday in that part of london!!!

  12. Nice baiting Tony, and they are all biting .Some are salmon-like
    swimming and hurtling upstream to certain disappointment.
    This year I think its a bad case of the Echo Virus – blah ,blah,blah !Its probably from the sour grapes !

  13. to John and Guy spur hahaha still mad ? and u dare saying we paid to Fulop ? what about the west brom equalizing OFFSIDE ? what about your DIver Bale ? and still you stupid SP*rs claim you are better than us hahahah Happy St Totteringham ….

  14. Best team in 51 years?
    you really are sad gooners, would you like to borrow a cloth to polish the trophy you won for finishing 3rd???

  15. The bribery that got you into the 1st Division is a matter of fact, not conjecture. The dodgy lasagna wasnt anyones fault – but the decision to make Spurs play when 9 first-teamers were throwing-up and unfit to play was dodgy – as it was taken by Premier League officials who were at the Arsenal game at the time, who refused to even speak to the medical staff at West Ham. We asked for kick-off to be delayed for a couple of hours so the players could re-hydrate – that was refused too. Does anyone think that if it had been Chelski or Man Utd in that position that the game would have gone ahead? As for this year – we had the better team, but you had (past tense) Van Persie – the man is awesome but without him, you’d be Sunderland. Did you see him interviewed on MoTD last night? Talking about his transfer – ‘whatever happens, I love Arsenal football club’. I’m sure he does – as does Fabregas and Henry and they say the same after leaving for clubs where winning matters more than finishing top 4. Spurs aimed for the stars this year, and fell short (The Redknapp problem, some appalling refs errors such as at Stoke, Chelsea, Wolves and Man C) but I’d rather aim for the title and finish 4th than aim for 3rd and finish 3rd.

  16. The little club in north London will be forever in our shadow… just deal with it!

  17. @Gary Fox

    Can you supply details of the bribery. I’ve yet to see any of these facts, only conjecture from Tottenham fans.

  18. Ha Ha ark at all these spud fan’s on here.They must be hurting because they wouldn’t come on a Arsenal blog sounding all bitter.

    Mind the gap you fools.

  19. Good day untold, i see some 5PUD2 have decided to continue being COCKerelS for the rest of there miserable lily livered lives. its about time you lot faced reality.

    first you might wanna have a butchers at the table, then history and if your little brain hasn’t exploded by then try researching the foundation arsenal is built on and compare with your own.

    i wonder how many players you’ll keep hold of if the unthinkable happens in the cl.
    and i wonder who will take up the slack if you fail to keep greedy?

    dont worry about us, were overly fine.

    2011/2012 – forward – mission achieved.
    2012/2013 – target practice – vanperski.

  20. Obsessed with spurs, pulease? All year you mob laughed, mocked and talked all kinds of shyte about ‘balance of power shifting etc’, not to mention our own friends/colleauges teasing and goading us, why is it so wrong to rub your noses in it. There is always next year as the term goes, so go back to ur drawing board while we go to ours and meet back here this time next year to resume debating. NLD were almost a given for us for so long that it’s good to see a challenge for once. You have come close on 2 occasions in the last 17years or so, while we really do have ‘bigger fish to fry’ I remember reading in the mirror (tots column)..
    Islington Yid: u fool, our stadium is twice the size of WHL true,(it shows the difference in clubs) But you mob have spent 100mil over the last 6 years all to finish 4th a point behind us, in our worst season ever in EPL! Put that in ur pipe n smoke it. AW is so good he could take Wolves for 6 weeks full training and still beat Spurs!

  21. We have arguably our worst squad in a decade and on the contrary, tiny spurs had their best squad in a decade and they still finish below us. Enough said.

  22. Didn’t need to pay Fulop! Just sent him a Tot shirt for dart pratice!!!!
    Haha!

  23. @ Tony, thanks for the great article – very interesting. It’s still unbelieveable that when you think about the Spuds moaning behaviour, which as you point in your article has been the same for years, we get called whingers! I could not believe it when the Spuds seriously blamed us for missing out on the CL spot because of their team meal choice.

    The article mentions that the Spuds haven’t won the league for 51 years…shouldn’t that be 5-2?

  24. Hahaha, thank all the Tinies fans for my good laugh today. Really appreciate it! You were absolutely right!!! You always aim for the trophies, not for CL football like the pathetic AFC, so you should be proud about that. As glory hunters, and with all the (diving) stars of yours, you have aimed for those trophies for only 51 years. No problem really because like any other hunter, you need time to fine tune your aiming. So nothing to worry about, you will surely can shoot one down after another 50 years or so of fine tuning. Nothing to worry about really.

    Oh, and about your diving stars, people say a good some of them wanna go away if you don’t have the pathetic CL football next season, but nothing to worry really, because you can always find other stars who can dive more convincing, right? So let’s just enjoy your new DVD about your best team ever which is full of diving stars who always aim for nothing less than the trophy itself, and will get it after some 50 more years of fine tuning their aim. I really admire them, and I mean REALLY!

    Thank you Tinies fans for always filling my life with joy, for now and some 50 years to come. Except for our dear AAAs, I love you guys the most! 😀 😀

  25. I am so glad that our neighbours popped in on this site to join the celebrations. It’s okay for others too break cover now too – no recriminations from me.

    ****Happy St Totteringhams everyone*******

    North London is red – FACT!!!!

  26. It’s a beautiful thing that you gooners really can’t see that times are changing in north london. Make the most of today, it’s the last time you’ll finish above us for the next decade. Print this out and save it!

  27. @ Dog Face – that vid, is funny!

    @ AK47 – and they reckon that was the best team they have had for years! Forever in our shadow.

  28. It’s gunna be a strange feeling supporting Chelsea in the Champions league final now. But wow, that would just top off this bizarre and amazing season if 5PUR2 miss out on champions league next year in such cruel fashion.

    Bye Bye Bale. Bye Bye Modric.

    My one real hope for the Spurs team next year is to see Harry remain in charge and see him continue this remarkable streak, last 18 games = 24 points – Over a season that is a stunning 51 points(10th place).

    Happy St Tots day everyone!

  29. Isn’t it strange that some of the tottenham fans over here seem to know that the AAA exists?
    Maybe because they are the AAA?

  30. Just wondering if Untold Arsenal will post a break down of this season?

    Bad start
    good 16 game run
    Bad winter
    Turning point liverpool/spurs game
    Good run with bad refs
    nail biting finish.

  31. Hilariously hypocritical of these spuds going on about Gooners being obsessed and making a big deal of beating them! Like they havent, with the aid of all their friends in the media doing precisely that ALL effing season!

    Funny as fuck how they are all bent out of shapt about finishing below the worse Arsenal team in history and all that utter bollocks!

  32. Sp what like the last 17 years mate,we have heard it all before.You would think you lot would learn by now,but i guess that’s how you work.Deluded ha ha

    Same old same old,change the record.

  33. I hope the chav’s lose thou and spud’s get champions league.
    What’s worse them winning it or spud’s going in it and doing f all??

  34. ‘Legolas’ I just find it all very sad. Well done for finishing third. We had a lot to deal with this season but the league doesn’t lie and you deserve to be there. It just goes to show how far you have fallen to be celebrating finishing above us and not challenging for the title. I’m sure most sensible Arsenal fans who actually know football are as worried now as they were when you were ten pints or so behind us as all it’s done is given you a false sense of achievement. You still have a lot of things wrong there and without RVP you would be hovering around mid table with Liverpool. I’ve enjoyed this season and although I’m disappointed to have lost third place it made for an exciting finish. As for this article, completely unnecessary and completely irrelevant, maybe the writer would have been better off addressing the issues at Arsenal that caused them to have such an indifferent season and how they can improve rather than digging up ancient history.

  35. Us obsessed with Spurs?? Who is checking out and posting on an Arsenal blog??

  36. @Essex road – yep, but the difference is that for 17 years you have had a better team than us. To be honest I’m still at a loss as to how we finished behind you this year – we’ve played 5 bad games all season, you had about 20! Oh well, God hates us, we know that (bet your house on Chelsea winning the CL). Onwards and upwards, looking forward to having another go next year already.

  37. @ Guyspur, don’t give me that rubbish! You obviously haven’t heard your lot’s away crowd singing their F off back to Woolwich song then. And I can vouch that oddly enough it was also sung as hundreds of your fans streamed into play Watford and QPR. Spuds are obsessed with Arsenal.

    It’s all very well and good, that you wanna critique where we can improve – because I agree that we can and will get better, but not today, today we celebrate St Totteringhams day! Lasange is definately on the menu (in case you were wondering).

  38. of course we had the worst Arsenal team in 17 years. We lost Cesc, we lost Nasri and we lost Jack Wilshere in the space of 10 days. Suppose you would lose Modric, VDVaart and Bale next august in 10 days time. Wouldn’t it affect you a little bit? And to be honest I think that Cesc, Nasri and Jack are a bit better than your 3 players. But that is opinion of course.

    We played almost 2 months without first and second choice left or right back at the same time.
    And if we hadn’t lost our most important midfielder (Arteta) in the final 5 games we would have won third place some 3 weeks ago.

  39. Walter – that could well be the difference between us at the moment. You let 2 of your best players leave (soon 3) whereas our chairman will chain players to the training ground goalposts to stop them going anywhere. Hopefully he suceeds again this summer or we’ll be in the same boat as you next year.

  40. @SP

    Remember Berbatov??? Players can easily force their way out, we know this all to well but don’t act like you spuds have never experienced this.

  41. You’ve only just entered one edge of the same riviera SP.. Forget being in the same boat.

  42. @ SP, it will be interesting this transfer window to see if your chairman really is a gentleman, as Levy apparently has gentleman’s agreements in place with Modric, Assou-Ekotto and Bale. Will he or won’t he – let them go as promised..

  43. GG- not only their best team but spearheaded by an ex arsenal knob-scratch on loan! ppl are quick to say where we’d be without rob forgetting greedy, messi, aguero etc…

    oh and how i laughed in the villa game when that deflection came off gallas!! and went in. le sulk of all ppl. HA!

  44. SP

    You truly are deluding yourself mate. What happened this season was a one off freakish occurrence. There is no way Arsenal will suffer what they did again ever, never mind it happening again next season.

    This Arsenal squad is better than any we have had for quite some time in my opinion and with more signings to come.

    The simply facts are that even with us having the worst start to a season in almost 60 years and the spuds having their best season in decadrs, with us losing our best midfielders and suffering unbelievable injuries.

    YOU STILL FINISHED BELOW US! 🙂

  45. Nice to see all my mates from the Seven Sisters Road on here trying to justify their long, tragic, unrequited history with us but 15 years is a long time to always be sniffing our arses or ¨hernifez nos culs,n’est ce pas? (as Aw would say)
    That said, i couldn’t give a damn what happened in 1915 or whenever, all I know is that the Spuds season was a mirror image of ours. They played great Football for a good part of the season until Arry decided to look for greener pastures , then the fans and some players turned on him publicly. Of course the team lost confidence and began to lose faith as well…losing some horrible games they’d normally win. They got knocked out of every competition they were in and had a less than spectacular run-in, finishing in 4th. Does any of this sound familiar to Gooners worldwide?
    The major differences, other than us finishing ahead of them as usual, was that we led the injury table all season (our usual habit)while they weren’t far behind and that we never had to worry about our manager wavering in his devotion to us. I feel that the Totts had a great season for the better part of it and that they play great Football, like we do. I love this rivalry and while there are cretins on both side of these two solitudes, most spuds are reasonable chaps like most Gooners. Each of us loves to hassle our adversaries and like evil twins, we mirror what each team does and represents. It seems that many Spuds and some of our supporters included, feel we underachieved this season and we feel that Spuds overachieved but the truth is that neither team can be faulted for what occurred. We did beat them to 3rd after being 10 points behind them, they did suffer (like us)the consequences of very poor officiating at times and both teams, in my humble opinion , finished where they belonged this season.
    For the near future, both teams will be trying to compete against 2 Manchester Clubs whose resources and willingness to buy trophies handicaps the North London’s chances of finishing top of the League. Many Spuds erroneously maintain that we are satisfied with 3rd, but the truth is that we wanted to win it all and have always wanted that, as do the Totts I would hope. We have no less ambition than they do, but we are pragmatists. We can’t and probably never will be able totake the strategy of big spending to win big, even if we wanted to. It took Shitty 6 years to win the EPL. It cost them over 200,000,000 Euros to do so. It took Chelsea about the same to get to the CL final twice. We have spent about 75,000,000 Euro over the same timeframe and got to the CL Final once, have never been out of the top 4 and came 2nd twice over the same timeframe while still leading the injury table EVERY season in that time.
    Next season, we will be a better Club, having shed our excess fat (5-6 players who will never be even squad players), having brought in 2-3 players we need to improve and having our long term injuries back. Will RVP have another magnificent season
    like this one, I don’t see why not unless he gets a knock. The addition of Podolski, who I saw play many time in Germany, will make a great difference to our attack. Wilshere, whose career is headed for stardom, will return in form and rested. All our knackered and walking wounded will be properly integrated into our side unlike last season and we will have a few new faces to push the veterans to greater heights so it will be another interesting season for sure. As far as I can tell, the Spuds will be on form as well and the only thing holding either team back will be how much money Shitty will spend to retain the title and how much Manure will need to spend to correct the officials insufficient assistance to Sir Alex fungus’ XX!

  46. @Goona Gal – How old are you, 12? There is me trying to be adult about it and constructive and you start talking about lasagne which was purely a media thing. I give up, there is no point arguing with idiots. I’m off to commit suicide as finishing fourth is clearly the worst thing to happen to us ever and it’s far too cold and depressing living in your shadow. Or, I may actually just continue on with my life as planned. Bye

  47. By the way, what are Sp*r’s fans doing on our website? Bored of your very own littlest Totts, eeh? Anyway, you blew your chance of ever again finishing above us, i think you should denounce the tiny Totts and we will initiate you as Gunners.

  48. @ GuySpur – 12 & 1/2 I’ll have you know haha you lightweight! Thing is Arsenal/this blog don’t need your constructive advice today. I am enjoying the fantastic end to a season which had a bad start. I thought you took a wrong turn somewhere when found this site. You are obviously a ‘billynomates’, but I suggest you get in contact with the Samaritans if you really can’t find a decent Spud blog.

    The Lasange thing – was not a media thing, it was really a Spud thing, The Marriott Hotel really was investigated for dodgy food following your defeat to West Ham! Oh sorry I forgot you don’t want to have an argument, but you turned up on an Arsenal blog, to tell us what again?? Whilst St Totteringhams feastivities are being enjoyed, of all days. Anyway since you are interested in all things Arsenal, I read this article and thought it was quite good.

    http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/arsenal-face-it-spurs-you-were-never-kings-of-north-london/

    …FYI, I would of thought ‘being adult about it’ would be to congratualate the better team and admit it was some achievement overhauling the gap many Spuds kept telling us to mind!

  49. @ Dogface, keep em coming!I totally forgot that it was Yossi that sunk the Spuds. I like player even more now!

    How do I insert vids instead of links then?

  50. I have laughed about the comments and videos I love them.
    About RvP and what he has said well tell me answer to this: Which of these to conversations will give employee better offer:

    A) Emloyee says: “I have had offers from other companies that are much bigger but I have made it clear to everyone that I don’t want to leave this place. Just give me the paper and I sign.”

    B) “I got much better offers from other companies and I’m intersted on them, but if you give me better offer can might stay”

    RvP is having talks with the club this week. Unlike with Cesc we are hearing RvP’s family saying he wants to stay…

  51. Always fun to poke a stick at our loving neighbours.
    🙂

    The story of next season will surely be:
    ‘Can Spuds avoid relegation?’

    I am so happy for them that I have written them a poem (with apologies to Percy Shelley):

    The (Totteringham’s Day) Lament

    O White! O Hart! O Lane!
    On whose shabby steps you’ve spun,
    Trembling at that where you had stood before;
    When will you return to the glory of 51?
    No more -Oh, never more!

    Out of the stand and off the pitch
    Your joy has rolled into the ditch:
    Next year, next season, next time might
    Fill lilywhite hearts with grief, but no delight
    No more -Oh, never more!

  52. A bit off topic but Defoe is a man of his word apparantly according to this tweet from Jack Wilshere:

    Oh yeah and @IAmJermainDefoe send me a cheque and I will pass it on to @GreatOrmondSt with great pleasure….think it was £5000 mate:)

  53. @ Dogface – thanks for sorting that out.

    @ AK47 – no probs.

    @ Walter, it will be interesting to find out how much money is raised for charity off the back of our 3rd place as I think that our plastic Gooner Piers Morgan had a bet with Alan Sugar too.

  54. Off topic myself now…..so the albino toad narrowly failed in his mission to take a West Midlands team down to the Championship and has been duly sacked…Look out West Brom, there is a CV winging it’s way over now! Wolves have no need of his service this year.

  55. Hmm. Let’s see. This is an Arsenal blog going on about Spurs. As Spurs fans, yes we had some high hopes for this season – but I am quite happy that arsenal are now more content to be fighting Spurs for 3rd rather than going for the league. As for “this is going to Spurs year”, I remember Arsenal fans saying the same thing for the last few years. All fans have expectations of their teams. The reality is that if you look at spurs and arsenal from even 7 years ago, who is progressing and who is regressing? To Arsenal fans are celebrating St Totteringhams day – do you guys get a trophy for that. Face it, for all intents and purposes arsenal are now in the similar position to Spurs. And sometimes it takes just 1 mistake or 1 player to make a big difference.

  56. Abe – arsenal regressed last summer which cause the bad run at the start of the season. removing that from the equation, we would have finished further ahead based on the last 3/4 of the season right?

    neither of us are at the level of man city or man utd (though this is down to consistency as on our day, we can beat both of them). but i can see us improving for next season.

    but for spurs, this season seems to be as good as it gets? especially if you lose Modric (likely) and Bale (less likely). i am not sure you will get the quality players to replace them. im not sure how much impact the harry for england news had, but i think you lost consistency at the end as well.

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