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Arsenal Topping Tottenham Makes A World Of Difference
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal finished above Tottenham, making it two straight decades of being the better side. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t matter!
There are some real Debbie Downers out there saying that Arsenal finishing in second place, above Tottenham Hotspur, isn’t a big deal. They say that second place means nothing in the table and that aside from local pride, it means nothing. Plus, it was just by a point, so who cares?
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Absolutely positively dead wrong. It’s no title. I don’t have to tell you that. The season was still a disappointment. But finishing ahead of Spurs is a massive lift and one that made a completely ruined season feel halfway successful.
There are so many reasons why. For starters, any season that continues a streak, like finishing above Tottenham or qualifying for the Champions League yet again, cannot be seen as a step down. While Arsenal are not necessarily improving, they are not getting worse. It may sound silly, but that is a good thing to pull from this season when it all seemed to point towards a step down not too long ago.
Finishing above Tottenham is about more than just pride. It is about continuity. Even when Arsenal fall flat on their faces and amount to the their fewest point total in four years, even when the title was theirs for the taking, they still finish above Tottenham. Any 20 year streak is impressive, but one like this just feels good too.
Plus, there is so much to be gained in the way that it happened. After a 4-0 win against Stoke, it looked to be in the bag for the Spurs. All they had to do was not royally screw the pooch. But that’s exactly what they did, drawing against West Brom and collapsing against Chelsea. They then dropped a crucial home match to Southampton before getting absolutely positively demolished by already-relegated Newcastle.
It was, in a word, glorious.
But Arsenal had to do the rest. In their final four games, they pulled out eight points, closing it out with an emphatic 4-0 win over already-relegated Aston Villa. In one day, the final day, Arsenal won 4-0 and Spurs lost 5-1, both to an already-relegated side. How beautiful is that?
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Don’t buy into the ‘it’s not a big deal’ talk. The people saying that are probably Spurs fans anyway. It is most certainly a big deal and it gives the club a reason to celebrate an otherwise drab campaign.