It’s been 23 years since a team other than Arsenal or Chelsea finished as London’s best team. The 1994-95 season saw QPR and Wimbledon finish ahead of London’s usual leading duo, although they were all eclipsed, so to speak, by seventh-placed Tottenham.
It’s been a long wait, but Spurs are London’s leading side once again – and this time, it’s not as the best of a mediocre bunch. This Spurs side could still conceivably finish second and is almost guaranteed a top-four spot after Sunday’s 3-1 win over Chelsea.
As is the way with Tottenham, talk immediately turns to the lack of trophies in this era of excellence. Their trophy drought goes back to the 2008 League Cup, although they do have a chance of winning this year’s FA Cup, with a semi-final against Manchester United looming. It would certainly cap a remarkable three-year spell for the North London club.
But even if they lose, the magnitude of what they’ve achieved should not be diminished. Trophies may be the currency of modern football, but they’re not everything.
The fact that this is a young, largely homegrown side with a manager who promotes youth development and thrilling football has been eulogised plenty of times recently. What gets lost amid the talk of not winning trophies and wondering how long Tottenham can keep their top players is that this is a genuinely successful team, and deserves to be acknowledged as such.
Only Manchester City have accrued more points (228 to 220) and scored more goals (239 to 217) over the last three seasons, and that’s largely down to their superb form this season. No side has conceded fewer goals, with Spurs level on 87 with United over that spell. Of England’s three major individual awards – the PFA’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year gongs and the FWA Footballer of the Year – Spurs players have won two during this time, joint-most alongside Leicester City and Chelsea. (Or, more accurately, one Spurs player – Dele Alli has won the Young Player award two years running, after Harry Kane won it in 2014-15.)
The enduring legacy of this Spurs era should be what Mauricio Pochettino has built at White Hart Lane. A team with a sense of togetherness, propelled forward by outstanding individuals – Kane, Alli, Christian Eriksen, Heung-min Son, Mousa Dembele, and Jan Vertonghen, just to name a few – and augmented by outstanding work in the transfer market, on a smaller budget compared to their rivals. This is a side that has utterly dominated a Real Madrid squad coming off the back of two straight Champions League titles, gone toe-to-toe with one of Juventus‘ best-ever sides, and handed out footballing lessons to all of its domestic rivals on various occasions over the last three seasons.
And now, as they arrive at their new stadium, the redeveloped White Hart Lane that has been the jewel in the Tottenham ownership’s crown, they enter it as the toast of London.
