North London derby


The North London derby is the name of the association football local rivalry in England between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, both of which are based in North London. Fans of both clubs consider the other to be their main rivals, and the derby is considered by many to be one of the most famous and fiercest derbies in England and Europe. Although the two teams first played each other in 1887, the rivalry did not begin until 1913 when Arsenal moved their ground to north London. As of 12 July 2020, 187 games have been played between the two teams since their first game in the Football League in 1909, with 77 wins for Arsenal, 59 wins for Tottenham and 51 games drawn. When games played before the formation of the Football League are included, 200 games have been played, with Arsenal winning 82, Tottenham 65, and 53 draws.
Notable matches of the North London derby include the games in which Arsenal won the league at White Hart Lane in 1971 and 2004, Tottenham beating Arsenal 5–0 at home in 1983 and Arsenal winning by the same score away in 1978, and Tottenham beating Arsenal 3–1 at the semi-final of the 1990–91 FA Cup, which they went on to win. The highest-scoring game in the North London derby is the 5–4 win by Arsenal at White Hart Lane in November 2004. The top scorers in North London derbies are Bobby Smith, Emmanuel Adebayor and Harry Kane with 10 goals each., Harry Kane is the top scorer in Premier League games with 10.
Arsenal play their home games at the Emirates Stadium in Islington, while Tottenham Hotspur are based at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the neighbouring borough of Haringey. The two stadiums are 4 miles apart. Until 2006, Arsenal played their home games at the Highbury Stadium and until 2017, Tottenham used White Hart Lane before relocating temporarily to Wembley Stadium.

History

Early matches

The first meeting between the two teams was a friendly on 19 November 1887, when Arsenal were located in Plumstead, and known as Royal Arsenal. The match, played at the then Spurs ground at Tottenham Marshes, was abandoned 15 minutes before it was due to end "owing to darkness" with Spurs leading 2–1. The first completed match between the two teams was held the following February in Plumstead; Tottenham could only field nine players, and were thus beaten 6–2. Another notable match was in 1898 played at the Spurs ground at Northumberland Park. The match with the then Woolwich Arsenal was attended by a record crowd of 15,000, and the refreshment stand collapsed when spectators climbed up onto its roof in the overcrowded ground, resulting in some injuries and prompting Spurs to start looking for a new ground. The next year the club moved a short distance to what would become known as the White Hart Lane ground. The first League match between the clubs was in the First Division, on 4 December 1909; Arsenal won 1–0.

Beginning of rivalry

However, a proper rivalry between the two teams did not begin until 1913, when Arsenal moved from the Manor Ground, Plumstead to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, just four miles from Tottenham's White Hart Lane, a move resented and opposed by Tottenham as they considered Highbury their territory. The move made Arsenal Tottenham's nearest neighbours and thus began a natural local rivalry. The two teams first faced each other as "north London" in a War Relief Fund friendly on 22 August 1914 at White Hart Lane. Although Arsenal were in the Second Division and Tottenham in the First, Arsenal won 5–1. They would go on to meet regularly during World War I in the London Combination, the regional wartime competition of the time.
The rivalry escalated in 1919 when, after World War I, the First Division was to be expanded by two teams, and the League held a meeting of the clubs to decide the two clubs by means of a vote. 19th-placed Chelsea, who would otherwise have been relegated, were allowed to stay and thus they took the first of the two spots. The second spot could have been awarded to 20th-placed Tottenham, or Barnsley, who had finished third in the Second Division, but Arsenal also bid for the place, despite their only finishing sixth in Division Two, although an error in the calculation of goal average meant Arsenal had actually finished fifth, an error which was corrected by the Football League in 1980.
After an endorsement by League president and chairman of Liverpool John McKenna on account of their longer membership of the League, Arsenal won the vote by eighteen votes to Spurs' eight and were thus elected to the First Division. It has been frequently alleged that Arsenal chairman Sir Henry Norris used underhand dealings in order to bring this about, although nothing has been proven. The decision infuriated Tottenham and their supporters, although eleven years previously albeit under different circumstances and involved entirely separate leagues that do not have automatic right to move between them, Tottenham themselves had been elected to join the Football League Second Division despite only finishing 7th in the 1907–08 Southern League. Tottenham were initially unsuccessful in their attempt to join the Football League, and only narrowly won election to the Second Division after Stoke resigned from the league for financial reasons.
Despite the setback, Tottenham were soon promoted back into the top flight after taking the 1919–20 Second Division title, and the derby was once again regularly contested. The first fully competitive derby match after Arsenal's 1913 move to north London was a First Division match that finished 2–1 to Tottenham, on 15 January 1921 at White Hart Lane. The early matches between the two were noted for their bitterness - a particularly vicious match in September 1922 led to both clubs being censured by the Football Association and threatened with being forced to play behind closed doors.
Tottenham played in the Second Division between the periods of 1928 and 1933, as well as 1935 to 1950, which naturally led to a drop in the number of matches between the two clubs in this period and a cooling of passions. In 1935 Arsenal registered its highest ever win over Spurs in a 6-0 rout away at White Hart Lane. This 6-0 result remains the biggest win by any team wherein the derby. Relations between the two clubs improved somewhat after the Second World War, after Tottenham allowed Arsenal to play their home matches at White Hart Lane while Highbury was requisitioned as an ARP station and subsequently bombed. The two sides met in the FA Cup for the first time in the 1948–49 season, when Arsenal won a third round tie 3–0.

1950–present

Since 1950, there has only been one season being that of where Spurs and Arsenal have not been in the same division, meaning fixtures between the two are regular. With being so, this has maintained the rivalry to the present day; there have been many [|notable matches]. Several of these comprise those where the course of a title or the journey to a cup final has relied upon the outcome of a derby match. As with any major football rivalry, gloating and banter between the two sets of fans, many of whom work and even live together, is commonplace. Players who transfer between the two teams receive a bad reception from their former fans; an example was defender Sol Campbell, who was nicknamed "Judas" by Spurs fans after he crossed the divide in 2001.
and William Gallas of Tottenham in the North London Derby of November 2012 which the Gunners won 5–2.
Arsenal's Theo Walcott, after picking up a knee injury in the 83rd minute of a FA Cup third round tie against Tottenham in January 2014, was pelted with a hail of coins and plastic bottles whilst coming off the field on a stretcher by Tottenham fans at the Emirates Stadium. Walcott subsequently made a gesture on the stretcher to the Spurs fans which reflected, at that point in time, the 2-0 scoreline of the game which it finished as eventually. An investigation was eventually made with regard to the perpetrators of the incident by the authorities.
On 30 April 2017, Tottenham beat Arsenal 2-0 in the final North London Derby at White Hart Lane. This result guaranteed Tottenham finishing above the Gunners in the league for the first time in 22 years.
Arsenal fans have a celebration day related to the north London rivalry called St. Totteringham's Day, which is the day in the season when Tottenham cannot mathematically finish above Arsenal on the league table. Spurs fans had long before declared 14 April to be St. Hotspur day in honour of Spurs' 3–1 win over Arsenal in the 1991 FA Cup semi-final. St. Hotspur Day was also celebrated on 14 April 2010, when Spurs beat Arsenal 2–1.

Fans

Both Spurs' and Arsenal's fan bases are multi-ethnic, due to the racial diversity in London. In 2002, Arsenal had 7.7% of their fans calling themselves non-white British, rising to 14% in 2008, the highest in the league in these fans surveys. Around 9% of Tottenham fans were non-White in 2008. Both clubs also have extensive fan bases throughout the UK and the rest of the world. Arsenal fans call themselves "Gooners", a term that is derived from the club's nickname "Gunners", which is itself a reference to Arsenal's origins as a munitions factory team.
Spurs fans call themselves "yids". Due to the historical support from the Jewish communities in North and East London, Tottenham once had a significant number of Jewish fans; it was estimated that around 10,000 or a third of the club's fans in the 1930s were Jewish. Due to this historical association, fans of many other clubs from the 1960s onwards have directed antisemitic chants at Spurs fans. Tottenham no longer has a greater number of Jewish fans than other major London clubs such as Arsenal ; an estimate put the number of Jewish fans at Tottenham as at most 5%, about the same number as Arsenal, but the antisemitic chants against Tottenham fans persisted. In an attempt to draw the sting from these chants, Spurs fans adopted the words "yid" and "yiddo" for themselves and thereby turned a pejorative into a term of pride and belonging. There is, however, still some controversy over the use of "yid" or "yiddo".
A 2003 online survey found that Arsenal supporters most dislike Tottenham, and that Tottenham fans see Arsenal as their main rival.

Results

Premier League

Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal

Fixture top scorers in the NLD (Premier League era)

Players in BOLD represent those who are currently playing for Arsenal or Tottenham. Source:
RankScorerClubGoals
1 Harry KaneTottenham Hotspur10
1 Emmanuel AdebayorArsenal, Tottenham Hotspur10
3 Robert PiresArsenal8
4 Thierry HenryArsenal5
4 Robin van PersieArsenal5
4 Gareth BaleTottenham Hotspur5
7 Ian WrightArsenal4
7 Patrick VieiraArsenal4
7 Freddie LjungbergArsenal4
7 Rafael van der VaartTottenham Hotspur4
7 Theo WalcottArsenal4

Cup semi-finals and title deciders

Although Arsenal and Tottenham have never met in a major cup final, there have been North London derby matches that have significantly contributed to one of the two clubs winning a trophy, such as semi-finals and title deciders. These include:
As of 1 September 2019, there have been 186 competitive first-class meetings between the two teams since the first league meeting in 1909, of which Arsenal have won 77 and Tottenham 58. The most goals in one game were scored in the closely contested 5–4 Arsenal Premiership victory at White Hart Lane on 13 November 2004. The biggest winning margin was a 6–0 away win by Arsenal on 6 March 1935. Tottenham have twice won 5–0 and Arsenal once, with all three fixtures taking place at White Hart Lane. Arsenal also won by 5–2 margins both in February and November 2012 home at the Emirates.
Tottenham's record for goals scored against Arsenal is 10 goals by Harry Kane and Bobby Smith, followed by Billy Minter with nine goals. Arsenal's record is held jointly by Emmanuel Adebayor, Alan Sunderland and Robert Pires, with eight goals each. Adebayor also holds the record for most goals by a player in the North London derby with ten: eight scored for Arsenal and two for Tottenham. Arsenal's long-time defender David O'Leary holds the record for most North London derbies played with 35, while Gary Mabbutt and Steve Perryman shared the corresponding record for Spurs, with 31.
Terry Dyson is the only Spurs player to score a hat-trick in a first-class derby game, having done so on 26 August 1961 in a 4–3 win for Spurs. The Arsenal players to have done so are Ted Drake and Alan Sunderland.

Summary of results

Arsenal winsDrawsSpurs winsArsenal goalsSpurs goals
League664753255224
FA Cup40295
League Cup7342119
Community Shield01000
Total775159285248

Crossing the divide

Due to the rivalry between the clubs, relatively few players have played for both Arsenal and Spurs since 1913. The first player to have played for both clubs, however, predated the start of the rivalry; Bill Julian joined Royal Arsenal in 1889 and Tottenham in 1894. Many other players played for both clubs before the start of the rivalry, including Charles Ambler, Arthur Elliott, Thomas Fitchie, Tom Pratt, Peter Kyle, and George Payne. A number of players had joined both clubs in the 20th century, but it was only in the 1960s that Laurie Brown became the first player to have played in the North London Derby for both clubs. The players who have played for both since 1919 when the rivalry escalated are listed below.

Arsenal, then Tottenham

Former Arsenal winger Joe Hulme managed Tottenham Hotspur between 1945 and 1949. George Graham was firstly an Arsenal player, then managed the Gunners between 1986 and 1994, before later taking up the reins at White Hart Lane between 1998 and 2001.
Clive Allen played three matches in Arsenal's 1980–81 pre-season friendly campaign, although never played a competitive league match for them.
Jamie O'Hara was a youth player at Arsenal before joining Tottenham. However, he did not play a single game for Arsenal.
Ron Piper was an amateur at Arsenal without playing a senior match before joining Tottenham in October 1960.

Tottenham, then Arsenal

In addition, former Spurs player Herbert Chapman subsequently managed Arsenal from 1925 to 1934. Forward Billy Lane of whom firstly played for Tottenham during 1922 and again from 1924 in a two-year stint at the club started in 1963 to feature as a scout for Arsenal. While former Gunner Terry Neill was Spurs's manager from 1974 to 1976, before he crossed back to manage Arsenal between 1976 and 1983.
Narada Bernard started his youth footballing career with Tottenham in 1997 but made the switch to Arsenal's Academy in 1999. Pat Holland was a reserve and youth team coach at Spurs from 1988 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2005 in a second spell with the club. Holland went on to take up the role of a coach at Arsenal's Academy in 2012. Holland left the role after less than two months due to personal reasons, but has continued to feature for Arsenal as a scout.

Played for both teams in North London derby

The following players have played in at least one North London derby for both teams:

Clubs' honours

As of 1 August 2020, these are the football honours of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur:
National CompetitionArsenalTottenham Hotspur
First Division / Premier League132
FA Cup148
Football League Cup24
Football League Centenary Trophy10
FA Community Shield157
Total4521

European competitionArsenalTottenham Hotspur
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup11
UEFA Cup / Europa League02
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup10
Total23

In its present format, Arsenal have, as of 2019–20, qualified to play in the UEFA Champions League on 19 occasions and Tottenham 5, although Spurs did achieve a fourth-place finish in the 2011–12 Premier League season but were denied a place in the Champions League due to Chelsea winning the Champions League. Arsenal were runners-up in the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League competition, as were Tottenham in the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League. Prior to this, Arsenal qualified for the former European Cup on three occasions, while Tottenham did so once. Arsenal were unable to compete in the 1989–90 competition owing to a ban on English clubs following the Heysel Stadium Disaster.
While the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup is recognised as the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, it was not organised by UEFA. Consequently, UEFA do not consider clubs' records in the Fairs Cup to be part of their European record. However, FIFA does view the competition as a major honour.

Highest attendances