Who cares more about winning the North London Derby?

Apparently the side who cares more in any given relationship is more likely to get hurt.

The question is would you rather:

(a) Win the Europa League (qualifying for the Champions League) but finish below your rivals who also qualify for the Champions League?

OR
(b) Finish 4th in the league, ahead of your rivals, thereby qualifying for the Champions League at their expense?

Of course the ideal situation would be to win the Europa league (or indeed the Champions League) and see your rivals still fail to qualify, but for the sake of argument let’s go with those two options.

For most Arsenal fans, having suffered through the media’s “nine years without a trophy” agenda, it’s a bit of a no-brainer.

By any measure Champions League qualification and a trophy is better than Champions League qualification and no trophy.

Luckily it’s not really a question we have to worry about since Arsenal have never played Europa League football and with 16 successive Champions League qualifications in the bag have only dropped into it’s predecessing UEFA Cup once.

Even on that occasion, in 2000, we went on to reach the final and only lost on penalties.

Spurs fans’ torment

For Spurs fans it’s an altogether more realistic torment.

A quick poll of my unfortunately numerous Spurs supporting friends* suggests that their response would be rather different.

Almost all would prefer to finish above Arsenal and deny us Champions League football than win the (admittedly second rate) Europa League.

It’s an interesting response, and one which needs investigating – the question is why do they feel this way?

*It’s good to have a few, but not too many. Sadly I grew up in an area which has been thoroughly infiltrated by the enemy.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

Ultimately it comes down to that small club mentality and what feels achievable.

If you know at the start of the season that you’re unlikely to challenge for titles, make marquee signings, or even qualify for elite European football, then you have to set your sights at another level.

This is where Arsenal come in.

Pity the Spurs fans – for years the media has been telling them that they are catching Arsenal, that we are in total decline, and that there is a power shift in North London.

This agenda has failed to recognise that when you take on hundreds of millions of debt to build a new stadium, there will inevitably be a period where your competitiveness suffers.

Given that our austerity years coincided with the arrival of the oil money, it’s something of an achievement to have continued to keep top level European football on the fixture list.

It has also failed to recognise that those austerity years would end.

But for a few brief years at any rate, those poor Spurs fans have been convinced that there is a giant bullseye on our backs. Little wonder, then, that their prime goal each season seems to be to finish above us.

Unfortunately for them, when you look at the statistics it becomes obvious that it is a rather futile goal.

KNOW YOUR LIMITS

Since Arsene Wenger arrived at the marble halls back in 1996, Arsenal have won three league titles, five FA Cups and five Community Shields.

Tottenham, meanwhile, have won two League Cups.

That’s an overall record of 13-2, and it doesn’t take into account near misses such as the afore-mentioned penalty shootout loss to Galatasaray or the 2006 Champions League final where we took the lead despite having Lehmann sent off after just 18 minutes.

Then there is the question of signings – Arsenal’s most expensive signings to date are Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck compared with Erik Lamela, Roberto Soldado and Paulinho for Spurs – quite some gulf in quality.

Arsenal can attract top talents from clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Man United. Meanwhile Spurs are picking up their players from the likes of Roma, Valencia, Corinthians, and most recently MK Dons.

This is the same club so adept at transfer dealings that they sold Jermaine Defoe to Portsmouth for £6m and then bought him back for a pricey £15m just a year later.

Little wonder that a combination of poor dealing and lack of elite football means that they cannot afford or attract the very top talent.

LEADING THE WAY

Then we come to the managers.

Arsene Wenger has seen off 12 Tottenham managers in his 18 years at the helm.

He has built up the support of the club and the fans (to varying degrees) so much that it took almost the full nine years of trophy drought for most to start questioning his position.

He is also the common denominator that almost every new signing references when explaining why they chose to come to Arsenal.

While Arsenal fans may be divided as to whether they think he can take the club forward now the lean years are over, there’s little doubt that this stability at the top has only helped to cement Arsenal’s position in the upper echelons of English football.

All the while, Spurs have had to put up with a series of journeyman managers who are either full of attacking endeavour but wide open at the back, or defensively sound but horrifyingly dull.

You only have to look over to Old Trafford to see the effect of stability (or lack of it) on the success of a club.

Out of those 12 managers, Tottenham have invested the most time in Harry Redknapp – a man with his eye on the England job, and his dog in charge of his taxes.

A man who was intent on destroying the club by buying average and ageing players at inflated prices – something also known as the Mourinho Effect.

Where Wenger has been the ultimate caretaker, looking after the best interests of Arsenal despite the abuse he has received from the media, and even some people more closely connected with the club, Tottenham have instead been plagued with managers who would rather have wheat today than bread tomorrow.

That has a knock on impact on what’s achievable for Spurs while Arsene has been delaying gratification for year after year.

As he finally starts to deliver on that promise now, the gap for Tottenham to bridge is only going to get wider.

THE SPICE OF LIFE

What it all comes down to then, is the respective state of the two clubs.

Arsenal have a focus on an end goal, Tottenham have nothing that exciting which they can realistically achieve, so instead they focus on Arsenal to spice up their seasons.

Welcome to small club mentality at its finest.

It gets to the point where it’s more important to beat us than it is to win trophies. Or to put it differently, it’s more important for us to fail than for them to succeed.

Ultimately they care more, so they are more likely to get hurt.

I almost pity them.

But then I remember it’s Spurs.