Tottenham had their opening to wrestle control of north London away from Arsenal for good. They had one of the world’s most promising coaches in Pochettino, who had grown a young core of stars such as Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min and Christian Eriksen, mixed with the experience of Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembele.
Spurs’ first XI that had flirted with the title was among the best in Europe, but they still sorely lacked depth. It didn’t help that they had to leave White Hart Lane, where they had gone unbeaten for all of 2016-17, to spend a year-and-a-half at Wembley before returning to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Meanwhile, there always seemed to be some sort of civil war within the Arsenal space either side of Wenger’s 2018 exit. Was Jack Wilshere better than Aaron Ramsey despite both being consistently injured? Should the team be built around Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez? Why is Shkodran Mustafi still playing? Was Unai Emery the right man to take Wenger’s job?
There was a sense of unity at Tottenham that had eroded at Arsenal since their 2004 title win. Everyone at Spurs seemed to be on the same page, until Pochettino in May 2018, for the first time as manager, called on the board to help him in the transfer market. They responded by failing to sign a single new player for the following two transfer windows.
Yet against all odds, Tottenham reached their first Champions League final in 2018-19, escaping a group of death after taking one point from three games, eliminating tournament favourites Manchester City via an infamous VAR call and scoring with effectively the last kick of their semi-final against Ajax. Arsenal had also qualified for the Europa League final, but the mood among their fans didn’t improve.
In the three weeks or so leading up to both finals, many Arsenal supporters were uneasy at the prospect of Tottenham winning the Champions League before them. What happened in the Europa League paled in comparison to the thought of Spurs becoming the kings of Europe. It came as a massive relief when Pochettino’s side lost 2-0 to Liverpool, softening the blow of the Gunners’ own 4-1 defeat to Chelsea.
That was as close and clear an opening Tottenham have ever had to ruling north London on such a seismic scale.