ENTERTAINING mavericks who flatter to deceive and end up well adrift of the real contenders. That stereotype used to be the familiar province of Tottenham Hotspur, a club that hasn't put together a convincing title threat for 48 years. Now the danger is that the role of willfully entertaining also-rans might be seized from them by their neighbours Arsenal.
This heaps insult on to the injury of Arsenal's substantially more impressive title record. In the past Tottenham fans could place themselves as purist aesthetes, more interested in entertainment than the vulgar stuff of the trophies that were being
secured by a remorseless sequence of 1-0 wins down the road at Highbury.
In the latter years of the Arsene Wenger regime, 21st-century Arsenal teams are so gloriously inconsistent they make Spurs look like dull automatons by comparison. If you are in North London and want to see a bunch of technically-gifted fancy-dans knocking the ball around languidly before surrendering a two-goal lead these days, you head for the Emirates with a skip in your step, to purr at the silky passing, deft flicks and defensive casualness.
Meanwhile, Tottenham under Harry Redknapp have become a marginally more robust outfit, even if the club's DNA is still strong enough to retain a strong impression of being a team capable of caving in at any moment. Today's derby is a battle for points at the top end of the table, but the loser can at least claim the moral high ground of being the more beautifully-fragile collection of temperamental talent.
That might seem a little harsh given their current standing in the Premier League. With their clubs lying third and fourth respectively, both on 19 points, Wenger and Redknapp are entitled to feel pretty happy with the first quarter of the season. The devil may be in the detail though. Tottenham's Big Four visa was torn up with a cruel laugh at the border when they lost easily to Manchester United and Chelsea in September, and shipped six goals in the process. Arsenal's capacity for getting complacent against lesser opposition was underlined by last weekend's careless 2-2 draw with West Ham, and they have lost to both Manchester clubs. The league table flatters to deceive.
Arsenal at least remain title dark horses, in that Wenger has won it previously and retains a consistency of vision, whereas Redknapp is less of a managerial craftsman, rather a handyman who hammers disparate pieces into some sort of shape and hopes it won't crack up under pressure.
Arsenal, or at least Arsenal reserves, looked smooth and persuasive in a very entertaining Carling Cup tie against Liverpool on Wednesday night. Wenger's Arsenal have the capacity to be impressive at will, even when, as against West Ham, the result goes against them. The concern though is that Wenger is just too much of a visionary, that he is putting out teams two or three years ahead of their time, tactical time-travellers as it were. Occasionally the brutal vulgarity of the present catches up with them.
A case in point is Wenger's attacking gambits. He has a confirmed disdain for direct centre-forwards, which is why he was so sanguine about selling one of the best, Emmanuel Adebayor, to Manchester City. The nearest he has to such a creature, Niclas Bendtner, is often deployed on the right, more often on the bench. Traditionalists would raise eyebrows at the notion of a club putting most of their goal-scoring expectations on the shoulders of Robin Van Persie. Wenger's own more impressive eyebrows would gesture expressively towards the five goals the Dutchman has scored so far. Wenger's mysterious wisdom is also revealed in the identity of Arsenal's next-best goalscorer, Thomas Vermaelen, whom the manager signed in the summer under the guise he was a centre-half.
Redknapp meanwhile has recruited more centre-forwards than he knows what to do with. Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane have been the most prolific. Peter Crouch has been decent for England, less impressive in the nightclubs. Roman Pavlyuchenko has assumed the role of the latest foreign enigma to baffle and disappoint that honest English tradesman Redknapp.
Defoe's form comes in startling bursts, and Redknapp must hope this one can persist. Keane's confidence remains dented from that unfortunate sojourn on Merseyside. Crouch needs a regular starting-place and a little more love from his manager to thrive. Ironically, none of Redknapp's current crop of centre-forwards has scored as frequently in the Premier League this season as the one he deemed superfluous – Darren Bent.
Tottenham's success in recent games can be attributed to a tidy midfield, with the verve and confidence of Aaron Lennon adding the necessary element of surprise. The Cameroon defenders Sebastien Bassong and Benoit Assou-Ekotto have been excellent. Keane's assertion that Tottenham have more strength in depth than Arsenal though looks a little suspect. When it comes to players who can turn games, Spurs have only Lennon. Arsenal could counter with Andriy Arshavin, Theo Walcott and young reserves like Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere and Wednesday night's hero Fran Merida.
If all Arsenal's academy prospects graduate with the same poise as Cesc Fabregas, the Emirates will be awash with trophies over the next ten years. The likelihood though is that some of them may prove too fragile for the treatment dished out weekly in the Premier League. Wenger's team could end up as no more than an idealistic blueprint for the way football should be played.
Last year this fixture produced a peerless 4-4 draw, a hammer-and-tongs affair in which the sides took turns to be enthrallingly inventive and risibly sloppy. A similar outcome this lunchtime would merely confirm the clubs' status as the most entertaining lightweights in England.
