LONDON — There is no doubt that right here, right now the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham is the best rivalry in the Premier League.
Their pulsating 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium on Sunday underlined that as we saw two fully committed teams going all-out for the win and their talented young squads are led by determined and charismatic managers.
Good news: this rivalry will only get better over the next few seasons.
That fact, coupled with how close these two bitter rivals are in terms of recent league finishes, their superb stadiums and plenty of other external factors, means this is the most even and best rivalry in the Premier League right now. And it has been for a while.
Last decade proves razor-thin margin compared to other rivalries
When we think about the other two Premier League rivalries perhaps historically bigger than Arsenal vs Tottenham (Liverpool vs Manchester United and Manchester United vs Manchester City), those rivalries have been one-sided for some time now.
Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Tottenham have five wins and Arsenal have six in the Premier League with six draws in that time period underlining just how close the duo are. There is an average of three goals per game when they met and there is generally no idea how it is going to end up. That is the making of a great derby and it has risen further in the rivalry rankings due to others in the PL becoming one-sided.
Liverpool have dominated Manchester United since Jurgen Klopp arrived at the end of 2015, with United winning just three of the last 17 games against Liverpool in all competitions. Liverpool have won a Premier League title and UEFA Champions League trophy in that period too, while United have finished above Liverpool just three times in the last seven seasons.
Manchester City have also dominated Manchester United since Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016, losing just five of their 14 Premier League games against the Red Devils, and given how far City and Liverpool have moved ahead of United off the pitch has also impacted the rivalry.
The lack of a real rivalry on the pitch has seen the allure of those derbies diminish. It’s just natural. Yes, the underdogs (mostly Manchester United) in those bitter rivalries have still pulled off the odd upset result but there just isn’t the same ‘anything can happen’ vibe around those massive games in England’s north west compared to the NLD in recent years.
This doesn’t mean that one of these great rivalries is more intense than another but over the last decade there is only one rivalry which has delivered consistent drama, razor-thin margins and a constant state of flux in terms of who the favorites are: it’s the north London derby.
Club ethos of both demands entertainment
Another factor which makes this rivalry great is the ethos of both clubs.
Arsenal are entertainers. Ever since Arsene Wenger arrived in the 1990s, that has been their focus. Tottenham’s club motto is ‘To Dare is To Do’ and we saw that play out on Sunday.
Fans of both clubs want to be entertained. We saw that with recent managerial appointments as Unai Emery was booed out of Arsenal for pragmatic football and both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were lambasted by most Tottenham fans for their negative approaches.
Arteta and Postecoglou want to entertain and dominate games and in Sunday’s NLD neither wavered from their coaching philosophy or the overall ethos of the clubs they manage.
This young Tottenham side were brave to go to Emirates Stadium and take the game to Arsenal and captain Heung-min Son says they will do it again.
“Look, that’s what we’re working on. We want to play our football. We showed how we want to play the whole season, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against,” Son explained. “It was very important. Obviously we made some mistakes and they had chances but still we want to play in that way. With that young team I think it’s very very good. It’s credit to the players that they took risks and want to play with that bravery.”
Bravery sums up both Arsenal and Tottenham extremely well right now and just as we’ve seen over most of the last decade, this rivalry will ebb and flow this season and beyond.
Youngsters at heart of their squads
Speaking to players after the game, the strength of this rivalry is not lost on them. They feel it every single day living in north London.
Many of Arsenal’s players have come up through the club and get it. Arsenal academy graduates Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah started on Sunday. Declan Rice is a Londoner and knows all about it.
Tottenham had plenty of players in their side experiencing the north London derby for the first time and one of them, young Dutch defender Micky van de Ven, embraced the hostile atmosphere and put in an incredible performance.
“It is a big game, the north London derby. Everybody talks about it when you are young and it is crazy when you are standing on the pitch,” Van de Ven said afterwards. “Everybody said it to me, ‘this is a real derby!’ Everybody said ‘this is the game’ and of course you have to play it like it is any other game but of course this is the game… The atmosphere was crazy at the beginning of the game. It was really nice but I had to keep the focus and play my own game and I think it went really well.”
The north London derby always seems to deliver an incredible atmosphere, two teams determined to entertain and so much drama and the best news for all of us it that is shows now signs of bucking that trend anytime soon.
