Five special moments that Tottenham Hotspur fans would love to relive again

#5 Spurs finally unseat Arsenal in 2016/17

While Mauricio Pochettino’s reign as Tottenham boss has cemented them as perennial title contenders, until 2016/17 one thing they hadn’t been able to do was finishing above their bitter rivals Arsenal in the Premier League table. The last time it happened had been 1994/95, well over twenty years ago – practically ancient history in football terms. Tottenham had come close in 2015/16 but conspired to collapse in the final two games, allowing Arsenal to leapfrog them into the second position behind champions Leicester.

2016/17 would change all of that. Not only did Tottenham push Chelsea all the way in the title race – eventually finishing second, essentially just because Chelsea got off to a quicker start in the season – but they finished a full three places above Arsenal, who ended up in fifth place, outside of the Champions League positions for the first time in over fifteen years too. The game that cemented the fact that Spurs had finally surpassed the Gunners? The game between the two at White Hart Lane on April 30th that saw a comfortable 2-0 win for the Lilywhites.

Arsenal never really stood a chance – outplayed by Pochettino’s troops from the off – and the game was decided by two goals in the space of just three minutes. First, Dele Alli bundled the ball in from close range in the 55th minute before Harry Kane doubled the lead in the 58th with a penalty following a foul from Arsenal defender Gabriel. Arsenal never looked like getting back into the game – they only had 4 shots on target across the 90 minutes.

It felt fated that it would be Spurs’ two best young players who would score the goals to shoot down their biggest rivals, confirming that they would finish above them, and while they didn’t win the league, finishing above Arsenal was enough for a lot of Spurs diehards. This was a moment to treasure forever.