Tony Adams says questions will always be asked about the current Tottenham side until they win a trophy.
Adams referred back to the Littlewoods Cup in 1987, when the Gunners faced up against Liverpool. He says that was a key moment for the side, and one that Arsenal took full advantage of, explaining to the Islington Gazette: “What was so important –was that if we hadn’t won the 87 Littlewoods Cup we could be like Tottenham now.
“I think the big difference between Tottenham and that Arsenal team and the Tottenham now is that they should have won the league the year Leicester won it and got over that line. If they had done that then, they would have claimed their first trophy which is a massive thing to do psychologically.
“That’s what we did as kids when we won the Littlewoods Cup and we went on to achieve a lot more by doing our thing. If they do win that first trophy then they could well do too and kick-on. But they haven’t yet.
“And until Spurs win some silverware there will always be questions asked about them.”
So far Tottenham have repeatedly fallen at the last hurdle (or the second-to-last). Pochettino’s side dropped off Leicester in the league late in 2015/16, they once again failed to do anything except put the pressure on Chelsea in 2016/17, and when they had the chance to go to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final they choked.
A few years ago, it was a similar situation with Arsenal. Every year the team would get close to one trophy or another, and every year they’d fall short.
Then the Gunners won the FA Cup in 2014, and even if the team wasn’t any better than before, suddenly a bit of that trophy winning mentality came back. Every match at Wembley since then has resulted in a win, and all those visits brought two more FA Cups and three Community Shields.
In the league, Arsenal maybe still lack that self-belief, but in the cup you hardly ever feel the Gunners will lose a game. If Spurs got a trophy under their belt it could be a similar situation, so lets all hope that doesn’t ever happen.