Home and Away | Whisper it, but could Tottenham actually finish above Arsenal this year?
St Totteringham’s Day is the time in each season when it becomes mathematically impossible for Tottenham to overtake Arsenal. The last time it didn’t occur was in 1995, but could this be another year when Spurs fans are spared the day?
St Totteringham’s Day is the time in each season when it becomes mathematically impossible for Tottenham to overtake Arsenal in the league.
Similar to Shrove Tuesday, Ramadan and Diwali, it is a movable feast, and usually falls in March, April or May. It is also the day for bets made by over-optimistic Spurs fans at the start of the season who foolishly (again) thought that “this is the year”, to be settled.
Arsenal might have struggled to win the Premier League title season after season, but their continued preeminence locally plus a European berth was compensation enough for the Emirates faithful clutching their talismans bearing their martyr’s name
The celebration was conceived at the turn of the century by Arsenal fans seeking news ways to gloat over and goad their rivals around the pubs, clubs, workplaces, schoolyards and streets of north London.
Not since 1995 have Tottenham finished ahead of Arsenal, allowing a whole generation of Gunners fans to rely upon the arrival of St Totteringham’s Day just as they would unmovable events such as Christmas, spring and dawn following dusk.
But come what may – all the twists and turns, jumps and fall – by season’s end the natural order of things would have been restored, and Tottenham supporters would find themselves in their default berth: beneath and lorded over by their hated superior.