Tottenham are better than Arsenal. Fact. Now they need the trophies to go with the bragging rights

THIS electric Tottenham side have proved themselves better than fading Arsenal. Their ambitions should now be much higher than clearing that low bar.

Tottenham’s win in the North London derby means they will finish above Arsenal for the first time in 22 years.

PREMIER League seasons are played over nine months and 38 games. But as effective shorthand for what has taken place this campaign, the last weekend in April was illuminating.

It was all there. The worst team in the competition put out of their misery after another surrender of a performance. The best team in the land over the last few months asserting their quality but seeing their last realistic chance at hauling in the champions elect go begging, through no fault of their own; the pacesetters clearing the final big hurdle towards the trophy as if it wasn’t there.

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The two Manchester clubs and their galactico managers continued their unconvincing scraps for the lesser places, held by teams of limited resources fighting for their lives, their restoration projects still far from complete. And Arsenal were simply Arsenal, the insipid embodiment of their garlanded manager’s increasingly gloomy autumn at the club, adding another indignity to a season full of them, another chapter in a story of decline at the one venue they ought to be obliged to at least have shown some fight.

Tottenham have a unity and balance to their side that makes them formidable.

And so St Totteringham’s Day, the festival gleefully celebrated by Arsenal fans for 22 years in a row, the day when it is mathematically impossible for Tottenham to finish above them, has been cancelled.

The narrative of a passing of the baton, a shift in power in the north of the capital, is a seductive one. And largely accurate. It did not, however, happen solely on one unseasonably balmy afternoon in the last North London derby at White Hart Lane in its current form.

Rather, the result, an energetic and busy but ultimately straightforward 2-0 victory for Mauricio Pochettino’s elegantly physical side, was merely a continuation of a process that has been several years in the making.

The contrast between Tottenham and Arsenal is stark. Arsenal are in stasis. Crippled by their manger’s resistance to change, any change, and a player recruitment policy that borders on the negligent. A self-fulfilling prophecy of mediocrity, within the strata they occupy.

Mauricio Pochettino is an intelligent coach with a force of personality.

Spurs, meanwhile, exude the vim and vigour of a side with purpose. A coming force, hungry and relentless. Two years in to the Pochettino project a side has been forged that blends youthful endeavour with a ruthlessness and in-game adaptability conspicuous by its absence at the Emirates Stadium.

Spurs and their urbane, fiercely intelligent coach have rightly been showered with praise. They didn’t need a derby win to confirm they are a better, more rounded side than Arsenal. Brushing the monkey off their back of empirical superiority is a fine thing. But the challenge now is to look upwards rather than beneath them.

For all their obvious quality — and a cumulative Premier League table over the last two seasons sees them 10 points clear at the summit — a more significant hurdle now needs to be cleared. In those two seasons both Manchester clubs, despite their incoherence, Leicester City and, in all likelihood, Chelsea will have held aloft trophies. Even Arsenal can still end a season of discontent with silverware.

In Harry Kane Tottenham boast a world class striker with years ahead of him.

So, at a moment of celebration and pride, Tottenham remain at a crossroads. A work of promise but still in progress. White Hart Lane is morphing in to what looks set to become a stadium to compare with other shiny citadels of European football. They have a collection of playing talent to strike fear in to any opponent, but for whom improvement is still possible due to their relative callowness.

A manager diligent and exceptional in his craft is at the helm and trusted by a board who have managed to balance the books while recruiting smartly. Should they ward off any approaches for their crown playing and coaching jewels, as seems likely — and draft in depth to the squad in terms of understudies for players like Harry Kane on whom responsibility is heavily loaded — there is reason to think they can compete for at least several years to come.

This season has been one of pressure and disappointment for Arsene Wenger.

There is also some small regret to fuel ambition, too. Not just that Chelsea accumulated enough points in the first part of the season to fend off the challenge for the title, Tottenham’s dip in form in the British autumn allowing their rivals to steal a march on them.

But, moreover, that the same side ended their chances of a moment of validation in the FA Cup.

In a pulsating semi-final in which Chelsea and Tottenham faced off there was less daylight between their performances than the 4-2 scoreline suggested. On another day the result could easily have been reversed. Chelsea’s street smarts edged it, this time, something that Spurs must learn from, quickly.

They have broken the curse of inferiority in league standing to Arsenal. Now they must rise to the challenge set by Chelsea’s winning mentality.

Dele Alli retained his award for the Premier League’s young player of the season.

Pochettino, reassuringly for Tottenham fans, seems acutely aware of this fact.

Last season when his side were locked in an ultimately futile chase with Leicester, when the race was run his team lost its collective head, both in an ugly battle with Chelsea and an embarrassing defeat to already relegated Newcastle United. The closing stages of this season, with the odds equally if not more stacked against them, the message has been one of pushing Chelsea until the mathematics outdo them. Of stepping up rather than stumbling, chasing a lost cause as if it were not.

The implication is clear. If Tottenham are to be taken seriously as title challengers they must conduct themselves seriously at all times. One eye is already on the resumption of hostilities next year. When the St Totteringham’s Day bunting, you imagine, will once again not see the light of day.

Originally published as Tottenham are better than Arsenal. Fact. Now they need the trophies to go with the bragging rights