Jermain Jenas says Tottenham can’t allow Arsenal to come back this season, regardless of playing at Wembley.

For the first time in 21 years, Spurs finally finished above Arsenal in the league last season, and managed to get themselves into the Champions League as a result. There was a lot of talk about a ‘power shift’ at the time, but with the new season starting, rather than pushing on and aiming higher, Jenas just wants Spurs to stay ahead of Arsenal.

The former Spurs player told Starsport: “[Spurs have] invested so much to be looked at as a certain type of club. And also obviously that battle of north London, people want to shy away from it or not talk about it but it’s right there for the first time ever.

“Spurs have almost got their foot on Arsenal. It’s a matter of going ‘stay there’ right now and not allowing them to come back because they will come back.”

The main problem for Spurs, which has been made clear over and over again in recent years, is that they are no good at Wembley. Jenas doesn’t think that Tottenham can use this as an excuse, as he told the Star: “I don’t think any excuses will go down well anyway. Everybody knows they’ve got to play on this pitch.

“Then they move back into the new stadium. What, are we going to say it the year after? ‘Oh we’ve got a new stadium.’ No. It’s an issue, I don’t think its an excuse.”

So far Tottenham just haven’t managed to have any success at Wembley. Last year they got knocked out of the Champions League after losing twice in three matches at the stadium.

Then, after falling down to the Europa League, they failed to beat Gent under the arch. Finally, they turned up again for the FA Cup semi-final in the best form of recent years, and got beaten 4-2 by Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Arsenal won their semi-final against Manchester City, then their final against Chelsea, then the Community Shield match against Chelsea, to make it nine wins in a row, and two more pieces of silverware than Spurs won in 2017.