{"id":6285,"date":"2022-06-18T12:58:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T11:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6285"},"modified":"2022-07-09T12:30:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T11:30:53","slug":"the-unbridgeable-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6285","title":{"rendered":"The Unbridgeable Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-18-at-12.51.32.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6286\" width=\"458\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-18-at-12.51.32.png 990w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-18-at-12.51.32-300x285.png 300w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-18-at-12.51.32-768x731.png 768w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-18-at-12.51.32-75x71.png 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px\" \/><figcaption>From: https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/soccer\/comments\/q6syo\/do_mind_the_gap\/<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Who is best placed to prosper out of Arsenal and Spurs going forward?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve found the last few weeks very dispiriting from a football point of view. Some people compartmentalise seasons and believe that everything is wiped clean at the end of a campaign. Unfortunately, that\u2019s wrong. Football nowadays is a continuum. Occasionally there are breaks in the playing of matches and occasionally you have opportunities to change and hopefully improve your team. But how and if you do this is increasingly dependent on how you did last season and whether you have the right sort of appeal to the right sort of players who can improve your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disappointment at the end of the season was compounded by the fact that we were overtaken and replaced in next year\u2019s Champions League by our biggest rivals, the Marshdwellers. The 3-0 defeat in the North London Derby was one of those nights that lead you to hate football temporarily. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong and what made it worse was that it looked awesomely predictable from the kickoff. I will return to that awful night later but what I want to do is to look at Tottenham as they are currently placed and how we stand and give an opinion on who will do better next season and why, then project on what the futures of the clubs might be beyond that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me make it clear that despite my huge bias in favour of Arsenal I\u2019m going to try to be objective. Don\u2019t expect me to be a cheerleader automatically for Arsenal out of loyalty. I\u2019ve always tried to be honest about my team. It\u2019s fair to say that when things look wonderful there is usually a problem looming around the corner and when things look gloomy and negative hope very often springs up as the club regenerates itself. We are going through that process now after some volatile years which, to use an Arteta phrase, have been \u2018like a rollercoaster\u2019. It\u2019s a fair, if obvious, analogy. Tottenham have seemed to be in that situation for a large part of the time since George Graham was appointed manager at Arsenal and they began a succession of appointments to try to compete with us. For something like thirty years there really wasn\u2019t a competition.&nbsp;&nbsp;It was a rivalry based on tribal loyalty (of course it always was) and spite, usually from N17 or from wherever they come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that is the first suggestion that my bias is showing, look at the trophy hauls of the clubs. Arsenal have won 13 league titles and 14 FA Cups (a record). Our record in the League Cup and in Europe is modest. So is Tottenham\u2019s. But whereas we have 13 league titles, they have only 2 and as the clock on our website shows, the last of those was won over sixty years ago. Only about 10% of their fans were alive when they last won the title. Clubs like Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and Blackburn have more top-flight titles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Tottenham have won 8 FA Cups, they haven\u2019t won one for over thirty years and they haven\u2019t been in the final for thirty years either! In that time we\u2019ve&nbsp;&nbsp;been in ten finals and we\u2019ve won nine of them . So historically, despite Tottenham achieving the first modern domestic double in 1961 and becoming the first English side to win a European trophy, Arsenal dwarf Tottenham in terms of achievement. There is no comparison. That massive divide explains a large amount of the motivation that Tottenham have to overhaul us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was common practice for Arsenal fans to celebrate St.Totteringham\u2019s Day when Tottenham could not overtake Arsenal in the league . Arsenal celebrated that landmark continuously from 1997 to 2016. But in the last six years St.Totteringham has not been seen. Tottenham have finished above Arsenal and in the last two seasons have clinched that honour on the last day of the season. It was much easier to take them excluding us from the Europa League Conference than it was from the Champions League!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What caused this shift in fortunes?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 1986 Arsenal have had four permanent managers. Tottenham have had ?\u2026\u2026it\u2019s 21! That\u2019s about one every eighteen months! George Graham was much more successful against Tottenham than his predecessors and then came Arsene Wenger. Wenger at one time racked up a 21 game unbeaten run against them and lost only 9 league games in 22 seasons. Mauricio Pochettino kidnapped St. Totteringham but the perception for many years was that St.T lived in Wenger\u2019s garden shed and emerged every spring to join in the festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drilling down a little it\u2019s possible to put some context beyond the numbers. I think the clubs were very well-matched for many years until the mid-80s. Arsenal were superior in the 70s when Tottenham got relegated and when they came back with Ardiles and Villa they went through a purple patch in the early 80s. It was George Graham who drew Arsenal away from the Spuds after David Pleat was sacked for kerb-crawling. George won most of his derbies and Arsenal won 2-1 at the Lane four times in 1987! One of those was the Rocastle game which took us to Wembley. We then became title winners and David Dein proved a much better business brain in football terms than Alan Sugar. Arsenal prospered and Tottenham played catch-up. Except they never caught up! The exception was the 1991 semi-final at Wembley when Gascoigne was phenomenal and scored&nbsp;<strong>that&nbsp;<\/strong>goal. But we won the league that season and only lost one game despite having a two point deduction and a skipper in prison for a few months!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sugar removed Venables and pooh-poohed much of the strategy that Arsenal were adopting. Tottenham embarked on a managerial quest that took in such luminaries as Shreeves, Ardiles, Perryman and Francis. Having rubbished our incursions into the continental market, they went Romanian and then brought in Klinsmann who was the first of their centre forwards with severe balance issues. The labyrinthitis that so affected the German still lingers on. Son and Kane have fallen prey to the virus in current times. Meanwhile after George\u2019s demise due to accepting unsolicited gifts from Rune Hauge, Sugar derided the purchase of Dennis Bergkamp which was one of the most enlightened in Arsenal\u2019s history. Klinsmann departed and Sugar claimed he wouldn\u2019t wash his car with his shirt. It was a bit embarrassing to sign him back a couple of seasons later in an attempt to save them from relegation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bruce Rioch had a season at the helm at Arsenal and then gave way to an unknown Frenchman initially derided by Sugar \u2013 one Arsene Wenger. Tottenham worked their way through the likes of Christian Gross, David Pleat several times, George Graham even. George actually delivered the League Cup for them but gave way to Glenn Hoddle. Hoddle presided over possibly the most bitter moment in Arsenal\/ Spuds rivalry &#8211; the defection of Sol Campbell. When Sol was revealed as a Gooner it laid bare the huge difference between the clubs in attraction for ambitious players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sol was inevitably derided bitterly by Spud fans for his defection and in many instances the level of bile went way beyond what was fair and reasonable. His decision to join Arsenal saw him win the Double in his first season, become an Invincible and score in a Champions League final. In many ways the wounds from his departure from the Lane have never healed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over at Tottenham an offshore investor ENIC bought an initial 27% stake in the club and installed an ambitious young man, Daniel Levy, in the chair. He remains there to this day, and has the longest tenure of any current chairman in the Premier League. We will return to Daniel later and try to assess just how well he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wenger years were even tougher for Tottenham than the Graham years. He won 3 titles, 7 FA Cups and took Arsenal regularly to the Champions League year after year, reaching the final in 2006. The accumulated revenue generated by that level of success has bankrolled the club in leaner times. We took a decision to move to Ashburton Grove and that move took place in 2006, ironically just after the Lasagnagate fiasco where the Totts blew a golden chance to edge us out of Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile the Totts were still regularly changing managers &#8211; Santini, Jol, Ramos (who delivered another League Cup in 2008, their last trophy) and then \u2018Arry Redknapp who at last took them into the Champions League. The lack of stability at White Hart Lane was a product of the desperation to compete, Levy\u2019s impatience and poor judgement and the dubious activities of one or two of their managers. To general surprise, Redknapp escaped with a not guilty verdict in a tax evasion trial but was replaced by Vilas-Boas who had already failed at Chelsea. It was not until Mauricio Pochettino joined from Southampton that we saw a sustained upturn in Tottenham\u2019s fortunes. This coincided with a perceptible decline in Wenger\u2019s powers exacerbated by the loss of his confidante Dein. In 2017 St.Totteringham failed to call even though Arsenal won the Cup for the&nbsp;&nbsp;third time&nbsp;&nbsp;in four seasons. Furthermore Tottenham had a potentially world-class striking partnership forming between Harry Kane (who had been with Arsenal as a young boy) and the Korean, Son Heung Ming.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rise of Pochettino and the decline of Wenger marked the first time that Spuds fans had sustained bragging rights in North London for around thirty years. Those years had been brutal if you were a Lilywhite and the pain intense. Understandably there was rejoicing in the Spud kingdom. They started to think realistically about winning league titles but surpassed their own expectations by getting, albeit very fortuitously, to the Champions League Final. Amazingly, they scarcely raised a whimper in losing to Liverpool. The Spuds had moved into their own mega stadium after almost two seasons of renting Wembley &#8211; The New White Hart Lane (aka the Toilet Bowl to Gooners everywhere) and this was for many Spuds fans a reason to crow. It is marginally bigger than Ashburton Grove presumably because they haven\u2019t had to allow space for a trophy cabinet?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wenger\u2019s departure to be replaced by Unai Emery saw a fabulous match in his first derby at our place, which resulted in a 4-2 win for the Gunners, but we could not overtake Tottenham that season. When results started to decline for both clubs, Pochettino was replaced by our nemesis, Mourinho, a spent and malevolent force and we brought in Mikel Arteta for his first managerial role. Mourinho initially had the better of their limited encounters but a 2-1 win for the Gunners was one of the reasons Levy fired Mourinho just before another losing a League Cup Final to Manchester City. If the Champions League Final was a tepid performance, this effort was quite pathetic .&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Levy vacillated about who to choose to sit on the managerial conveyor belt and alarmed by Antonio Conte\u2019s demands made the appalling decision to employ Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo. A humiliation at Arsenal led to his demise and eventually Levy had to bite the bullet and finally employ Conte. The Italian made an immediate impact and shortly we will evaluate his likely future career at the Totts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recent developments&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the season ended with Tottenham finishing agonisingly ahead of Arsenal there has been a marked difference in acquisition activity, although as I write this appears to be changing. Conte has made it clear that he hasn\u2019t come to Tottenham to develop a long-term project. He is coming to try to win silverware immediately. He has acquired the 33-year old Ivan Perisic to be a left wing back, looks likely to acquire Djed Spence as right wing back, has signed Bissouma to play in midfield with Bentancur who, with Kulusevski was acquired from Juventus to very good effect and they are being strongly linked with Richarlison of Everton. Fraser Forster has become their back-up keeper. Tottenham now look a more pragmatic and solid side than they have looked for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are decisive moves but very little long-term appreciation of the asset acquired is likely to happen&nbsp;&nbsp;in&nbsp;&nbsp;most&nbsp;&nbsp;cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;The likelihood is that they may hit the ground running when the season begins. Arsenal have begun the window cautiously but the only purchases so far are Matt Turner the American goalkeeper, a new Vieira &#8211; this time Fabio a young midfielder from Porto, and Marquinhos a winger from Brazil whom everyone is filing as \u2018one for the future\u2019. We may also have William Saliba back at the club next season for the first time since we signed him in 2019.The internet is awash with rumours, the strongest of which suggest we may sign Youri Tielemans in midfield, although Sky are now suggesting that Vieira is the only midfielder we will sign. If this is the case my levels of pessimism will rise dramatically. If Xhaka remains a first choice midfielder we can wave any hope of serious progress goodbye.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are also linked with Gabriel Jesus upfront and Aaron Hickey as a back-up left (or right) back. Arsenal\u2019s buying modus operandi is very clearly to acquire younger players with high sell-on value who fit into a prescribed style of play. Tottenham used to, pre-Conte, have a similar philosophy but Paratici their Director of Football has obviously got a much more open cheque book than most Spud managers have. The financial rigour for which Levy is famed is giving way to a dash for honours acquired at what may prove to be an unacceptable price. Uncertainty around both clubs\u2019 transfer activity several weeks before the season begins means lots of judgements about how next season will unfold are rather wild speculation. Nevertheless, I have tried to look at the pros and cons of each club\u2019s situation&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plus factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a really positive feeling among regular supporters and new belief in what might lie ahead. The stadium is fun to visit. Arsenal made progress last season winning 22 games and amassing a points total that would have given them Champions League qualification in several previous seasons. Arteta is possibly going to be a generational coach and has a clear vision which he communicates well. Their transfer template largely worked well and Ramsdale, White, Tomayisu and \u00d8degaard are good acquisitions who should get better. We have plenty of talent to sell who could be of interest to other clubs. It would be reasonable to expect we might raise \u00a380 million in transfer fees. Our wage bill has already been substantially trimmed. Homegrown talents like Saka, Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Martinelli (sort of) all improved markedly last season. Gabriel had an excellent season and Tierney was very good until seriously injured. Thomas Partey began to play like a world class midfielder and Charlie Patino made his bow. We have many exciting talents bubbling under most notably Norton-Cuffy, Hutchinson, Flores, Cozier-Duberry and Biereth. Arsenal, with a good transfer window should be a stronger team next season. They might have a better chance to secure a place in the Champions League through victory in the Europa League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minus factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal were four points ahead of Tottenham with three games to go and blew it. Their performance at Newcastle in particular was execrable. They only won one game where they conceded the first goal last season and scored a total of three equalisers all season (still losing in one of those games). If this team goes behind it loses and it loses in clumps &#8211; the first three games of last season, United and Everton, Palace, Brighton and Southampton and finally Tottenham and Newcastle. Performances are very inconsistent, we lack a regular goal scorer and we need more dynamism in midfield. We will hopefully \/ probably play at least a dozen games more than we played last season when we still finished with four key players injured. We have several very injury-prone players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to find a twenty goal a season striker and build a more flexible squad. Arteta has made a porridge tactically of some key games and it is hard to believe we can perform so poorly in some vital matches \u2026.and then there\u2019s the equalising issue! Do we have the spirit that successful sides engender and have we got the right sort of character to succeed? My conclusion at the moment is that we do not. We also get many more red cards than other teams despite a lack of vicious, undisciplined players. A recent calculation suggested we got a red card every eight games under Arteta. So there may be an unconscious refereeing bias against us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next season we can expect an improved Manchester United and Newcastle who may challenge us hard for Champions League places. The top three are likely to be unchanged. But there will be five CL places on offer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Cup falling in mid-season will create massive disturbance but will give a mid-season break to players not participating,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>e.g. Holding, Tierney, \u00d8degaard and Elneny. But we could have as many as 15 or maybe more players in Qatar.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tottenham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plus factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being in the Champions League will give them opportunities to sign some players we can\u2019t attract, plus it will provide extra finance. They have an elite, proven coach who has radically improved their performance in games against top teams (they didn\u2019t lose to either of the top two last season and did the double over the champions). Their Technical Director has a strong track record at Juventus and has already acted very decisively in this close season. They are asking over \u00a320 million for Harry Winks whereas we sold a significantly better player in Guendouzi for \u00a39 million. That suggests an ability to horse trade that we don\u2019t seem to possess. They have an intimidating stadium and one of the best attacks in European football. They scored eight more goals than us and also conceded eight less. Their midfield is currently much stronger and deeper than ours. Bissouma is likely to strengthen them enormously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conte has unsurprisingly improved the defence, especially players like Dier, Davies and Romero.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minus factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Possibly the biggest is that they are Spursy but that\u2019s hard to claim after our end to the season and our last opportunity before that under Unai Emery to qualify for the top four. Certainly S***s do not have trophy winning DNA. There was a big risk that the club would implode if they failed to qualify for the Champions League last season with players like Kane and Son looking to move and Conte realising that rebuilding them was a long-term project under a Chairman who has no idea what winning silverware looks like. That risk has largely evaporated and the feel-good factor has been intelligently maintained by their transfer impetus. Morale at the Toilet Bowl is probably higher than anywhere but at the top two clubs. But a poor start may set off Conte\u2019s inclination to moan, other big European clubs may come looking to see if he wants to jump ship, he may get fed up living away from his family in the Landmark Hotel and S***s may not have the same luck with injuries they had last season when neither Son nor Kane suffered serious injury and his chosen first team was available to him almost completely during the run-in. Tottenham are hugely dependent on Son and Kane who scored 40 of their 68 goals between them. Their third top scorer was \u2018own goals\u2019!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Cup will involve Lloris, Davies, Romero, Bentancur, Kane, Son and maybe Richarlison and Perisic. They could have similar numbers of players to us out in Qatar. It puts a particularly great strain on their precious striking resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conte suffered second season syndrome at Stamford Bridge although he won the FA Cup and then departed. His idea of what is a reasonable spend for an ambitious club is highly likely to diverge from Daniel Levy\u2019s! Almost every other Tottenham manager has found this over time! If that does happen we\u2019ve seen the film before \u2026 at Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan and it started to happen after the defeat at Burnley. Tottenham are loaded down with debt. It\u2019s interesting that they didn\u2019t sell out a lot of home games last season and the combination of a glitzy new stadium and a pandemic has created a financial burden that no amount of NFL games, Rugby League finals or pop concerts will reduce significantly for a while. Levy has always been miserly\/sensible (delete what you think is less applicable) on setting wages and that can\u2019t change given the financial pressures on them. Tottenham fans fluctuate in their views on how good a job Levy has done but everyone is ecstatic at the job Conte has done. The fact remains that until you bring silverware home consistently you can\u2019t be said to be a big or successful club. Unless ENIC sell the club and that must be a long-term goal, it\u2019s hard to see them becoming a football superpower and if\/when Conte leaves they are likely to be plunged into another crisis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would predict with some confidence that Conte\u2019s Tottenham is not a long-term project. They can\u2019t aspire to the sort of success with their resources and the age of their squad that Conte would desire. He doesn\u2019t want to reach the quarter finals of the Champions League &#8211; he wants to win it. If Tottenham did win it, it would be equivalent to Leicester winning the Premier League in 2016. The question is how long he waits before he jumps ship to a better project with more immediate hope of instant success. PSG sounds like a very possible move. How about a job swap with Poch?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So, what does the future look like?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My honest view is that I\u2019m increasingly fearful that we won\u2019t make the top five next season. It is by no means impossible and we might find the transfer window works out better than I expect it to but Conte is currently a more experienced and stronger coach than Arteta and he has two great strikers at his disposal. Arteta hasn\u2019t got any and if Jesus and Nketiah are our strike force next season they won\u2019t score the same number of goals that Son and Kane will. Arsenal fans have been patience itself as they have responded to the positivity of the Arteta regime. But another season without the CL will increase the risk of Saka or ESR or Martinelli looking for a more immediate elevation into top European football. I think we may win the Europa League next season but finish below Tottenham. That\u2019s not what you wanted to hear but I believe the evaluation I\u2019ve made makes sense. I just hope I am being far too pessimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;But there is a real silver lining. In three years time, if we can retain our top talents or replace those who leave with comparable quality we might be significantly ahead of Tottenham as we reap the benefit of careful husbandry of our resources and an exceptional group of prospects. And one final point. While the rivalry with the Spuds is intense we must not let it define us. Tottenham are not a club we should be focusing on. We could finish above them and still be far short of being title winners. While it will always be exquisite to beat them and agonising to lose to them, Arsenal are a club that focus on the top table. Even if Tottenham pull up a chair there next season I don\u2019t expect their fragile superiority to last long. We have much bigger fish to fry than the sprats down the Seven Sisters Road!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Appendix &#8211; Trophies won&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inter-Cities Fairs Cup \u2013 1969\u201370 (1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UEFA Cup Winners\u2019 Cup \u2013 1993\u201394 (1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FA Community Shield \u2013 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1948, 1953, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020 (16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FA Cup \u2013 1929\u201330, 1935\u201336, 1949\u201350, 1970\u201371, 1978\u201379, 1992\u201393, 1997\u201398, 2001\u201302, 2002\u201303, 2004\u201305, 2013\u201314, 2014\u201315, 2016-17, 2019-2020 (14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First Division (until 1992) and Premier League \u2013 1930\u201331, 1932\u201333, 1933\u201334, 1934\u201335, 1937\u201338, 1947\u201348, 1952\u201353, 1970\u201371, 1988\u201389, 1990\u201391, 1997\u201398, 2001\u201302, 2003\u201304 (13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>League Cup \u2013 1986\u201387, 1992\u201393 (2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tottenham&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Football League Champions: 1950\/1951, 1960\/1961 (2)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;FA Cup Winners: 1900\/1901, 1920\/1921, 1960\/1961, 1961\/1962, 1966\/1967, 1980\/1981, 1981\/1982, 1990\/1991 (8)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Football League Cup Winners: 1970\/1971, 1972\/1973, 1998\/1999, 2007\/2008 (4)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European Cup-Winners\u2019 Cup Winners: 1962\/1963 (1)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UEFA Cup Winners: 1971\/1972, 1983\/1984 (2)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Football League Division Two Champions: 1919\/1920, 1949\/1950 (2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FA Charity Shield Winners: 1920\/1921, 1951\/1952, 1961\/1962, 1962\/1963, 1967\/1968 (joint), 1981\/1982 (joint), 1991\/1992 (joint) (7)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since Tottenham last won the League title, Arsenal have won it six times<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since Tottenham last won the FA Cup Arsenal have won it nine times.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is best placed to prosper out of Arsenal and Spurs going forward?&nbsp; I\u2019ve found the last few weeks very dispiriting from a football point of view. Some people compartmentalise seasons and believe that everything is wiped clean at the end of a campaign. Unfortunately, that\u2019s wrong. Football nowadays is a continuum. Occasionally there are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6323,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions\/6323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}