North London Derby Between Tottenham and Arsenal Is Higher Stakes Than Ever
The north London derby carries immeasurable significance among the fans of both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
The respective positions of the two clubs are usually ignored and the tired cliche that "form goes out the window" seems to really apply.
Ever since Arsenal's belated arrival on the north side of the Thames, this fixture has loomed largest in the calendar for both sets of fans.
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Earlier in the season, Spurs entered the first derby of the campaign with little reason to feel confident.
However, a tactical shift and the first evidence that Mauricio Pochettino's demanding physical preparation was beginning to take effect saw Spurs take the lead. Nacer Chadli's goal was a sweet one for the travelling fans, but the match ended in a draw after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's equaliser.
Arsene Wenger complained after the match that Spurs had been overly defensive, but the tactical tweak almost resulted in a rare victory on enemy ground and can be judged an appropriate response to the opposition.
Now, with Arsenal and Tottenham neck-and-neck in both their recent results and their league positions, this derby takes on an additional dimension.
While the eternal rivals have been involved in prolonged battles for the Champions League places in many recent seasons, this year is different. Both sides have reason to believe that they will finish among the top four.
Five sides remain as contenders for the two positions not occupied by Chelsea and Manchester City. Manchester United are the best resourced of the chasing pack but are arguably the worst equipped for the job. They've shown little progress and shouldn't frighten either of north London's challengers.
Liverpool have enjoyed a remarkable recent run. They are the only side in the Premier League in better form than Spurs and Arsenal. With no European obligations, they will be hard to beat, but they retain the weaknesses that made them so eminently beatable in the early months of the season.
Southampton remain the enigmatic outsider. Against all expectations, they are still in the hunt. Their collapse is inevitable, although it has been seemingly since before the season began.
Neither Tottenham nor Arsenal are inferior to any of their fellow Champions League aspirants, but as the season moves towards its climax, there will be no greater opportunity for one of the two to smother the other's rising hopes.
When Tottenham hosted the Gunners last season, their desperate hopes of a top-four berth were extinguished by a single goal from Tomas Rosicky in an otherwise lifeless match. Spurs tried hard but were ultimately lacking in any imagination, while Arsenal, scarcely better on the day, clung to their lead.
In 2015, it is still Spurs looking up at Arsenal, but while they limped into this fixture 12 months ago, the same cannot be said now.
Tottenham's newfound resolution has fuelled an excellent run in the Premier League. Their genuine match-winners in Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane are themselves on a remarkable run. They combined to blow Chelsea away a month ago and could certainly do the same to Arsene Wenger's side.
Wenger faces a dilemma at White Hart Lane.
While a decidedly gung-ho approach saw them knock off Manchester City, the stakes are far higher in this match. Expectations were so low that had Arsenal been beaten in Manchester, little would have changed.
The stakes could scarcely be higher in this derby.
Were Tottenham to beat their hated rivals, they would move ahead of them and strike a phenomenal psychological blow.
In 2012, when Spurs had sat ahead of Arsenal for virtually the entire season, they took a 2-0 lead at the Emirates before suffering one of the worst defeats in the club's history. Not only did they fall to an embarrassing 5-2 thrashing, Arsenal proceeded to reel in Spurs' significant advantage in the table and, eventually, beat them into the Champions League once again.
When Spurs succumbed to food poisoning on the final day of the 2005-06 season, they watched Arsenal take fourth place. Had they denied Thierry Henry's late equaliser at Highbury two weeks earlier, lasagne-gate would have been of no consequence.
Should Spurs reverse this uncomfortable trend, they will take the momentum and push the pressure on to their rivals.
Sometimes the crowd is not an advantage for Spurs, but that's not the case on derby day. The White Hart Lane faithful will be in full voice as their team, likely packed more with local talent than in any other derby in recent memory, takes on their bitterest rival.
The race for the Champions League has always been a marathon. It is a battle that favours experience. Arsenal have been there before and that is why they have so often pipped Spurs at the last.
Pochettino's Spurs are not like the teams that came before them. There is a toughness and a resilience to this team.
The recurrent comebacks demonstrate both superior fitness and a hardening of the infamously soft mentality at the club.
The functionality of the Nabil Bentaleb-Ryan Mason midfield draws little criticism these days. It is no longer stability simply for the sake of it, as things seemed under Andre Villas-Boas.
Algeria's exit from the African Cup of Nations was timely for Tottenham's league campaign. Bentaleb should return in plenty of time to start against Arsenal.
Those two academy graduates erect the stage for Eriksen and Kane to perform.
Pochettino has already built something special at Spurs. His team is based around that youthful core of Bentaleb, Kane, Eriksen and Mason. The quartet have been instrumental in the rising results and can deliver a hugely valuable derby victory.
If they do, Spurs will have the platform to do something historic.
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