Petr Cech recently had a cheeky dig at those who reckon there’s been a power shift in north London.
Cech believes that Spurs need to go and win some trophies before they start talking about overtaking Arsenal.
“No I don’t think (there’s been a power shift),” the 35-year-old told Sky Sports. “There is always one odd year where things can change, but the most important thing for us is competing against the other teams for the Premier League title and for the glory.
“We are not competing against Tottenham Hotspur. Two years ago when we finished above them we were disappointed because we didn’t win the title.
“Our target is to win the title and be successful during the season, not necessarily looking at what Tottenham are doing.
“They’ve been there in the last few years so now I think they have to make sure they win something to show the progression.
“Success is ultimately winning trophies. We were under pressure the last couple of years, people talking about winning trophies, obviously we are disappointed not to have won the title but we won FA Cups. Although the season was not always what we wanted, we always had a trophy at the end of it.”
The goalkeeper has a point. While Spurs’ current team are better than Arsenal’s and Mauricio Pochettino has done a good job since his appointment in 2014, the Lilywhites are yet to actually win a trophy. In fact, they’ve not won any silverware since the League Cup in 2007/08.
Meanwhile, despite the Gunners steadily decreasing in quality, we’ve managed to win the FA Cup three times since then.
Spurs are currently third in the Premier League table, level on points with Manchester United in second, four ahead of Arsenal in sixth. And they finished ahead of the Gunners last season for the first time since 1995. However, this is all during Arsene Wenger’s worst ever period in charge compared to Spurs’ best ever period.
The power won’t have shifted until they’ve done more than just come above us for a season and beat Real Madrid 3-1.
Arsenal face Tottenham in their first North London Derby of the season on Saturday. We’ll have a better idea of how the two teams compare then.