A St Totteringham's Day Diary.

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Fri, 04 Apr 2025

Happy (day after) St Totteringham's day!

Chelsea managed to stay 1-0 up and so St Totteringham's Day 2025 was April 3rd.

Some quick facts:

• It is the 54th time the festival has been celebrated, since the first one back in 1911.
• It is the 33rd April St T's.
• There have been two previous 3rd April St Ts, in 1988 and 1991. For younger readers we won the league with only one defeat in 1991.
• This makes a run of 3 years. This is the fifth time there has been a run of at least 3 years. It'd be more but for Spur's dalliances in the second tier.
• Earliest St Ts for a few years: you have to go back to 9th March 2009 for an earlier one.

More info is available at history page, in particular there is a summary of how often Arsenal have finished above Spurs.

Enjoy chatting with Spurs fans at work today!

(By the way an email correspondent has pointed out what I wish I could pass off as an April fools day joke in my reporting the Fulham score. Oops.)

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Thu, 03 Apr 2025

It could be the day...

As I write this Spurs are losing 1-0 at Chelsea with fifteen minutes to go.

I say 1-0, with the VAR lottery it could be 2-0, 2-1 or 1-1.

If it remains this way, or even if Spurs manage a draw then St Totteringham's will be today: 3rd April 2025.

I'll do an update in the morning either way.

PS I had an email pointing out that I should have said next time Arsenal win or draw it'd be St Ts if we don't get the result today, rather than just the next time they win. They are quite correct. However it looks like it won't come to that.

PPS now 81 minutes in... still 1-0.

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Tue, 01 Apr 2025

Arsenal 1 Fulham 2: The Saint Warms Up

A good result this evening. Great to see Saka back and scoring too.

It isn't quite St Totteringham's Day however

So Arsenal are now 27 ahead, and Spurs have 9 to play. They could catch us if we lose every game and they win every game:

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	30	61
Spurs	29	34	27	(27)	(61)

What we need:

• If Spurs lose or draw on Thursday it is St Ts.
• If they do beat Chelsea the next time we win, or they draw or lose will be St Ts.

Next few fixtures:

Thu 3rd Apr                        Chelsea v Spurs
Sat 5th Apr   Everton v Arsenal
Sun 6th Apr                        Spurs v Southampton
Sat 12th Apr  Arsenal v Brentford
Sun 13th Apr                       Wolves v Spurs
Sun 20th Apr  Ipswich v Arsenal 

Won't be long now!

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Sun, 16 Mar 2025

North versus South London

Two North-South London Derbies today, both going as we would hope! Well played Merino, and thanks to Fulham for a solid win.

So Arsenal are now 24 ahead with 9 to play:

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	29	58
Spurs	29	34	24	(27)	(61)

(In case you are wondering why I haven't updated since the 12th February it is because our league form was so bad...)

So come April fools day Arsenal play Fulham, and two days later Spurs travel to Chelsea for part 2 of North v South. That is an annoying wait as those fixtures could spell St T's day in early April.

What we need:

• If Arsenal beat Fulham then we will have 61 points which Spurs can only match. If Spurs then draw or lose on the Thursday it will be St Ts on 3rd April.
• If we draw, then it will be St Ts on the Thursday the 3rd only if Spurs lose.
• If we lose it drags on until at least the 5th of April. This is also true Spurs beat Chelsea.
• We need four points: A win and a draw for us is all that is needed before the end of the season.
• Alternatively Spurs cannot drop four points, so they cannot afford not to win two more matches this season.

I'll do an update after that game, but remember even if we win it isn't St Ts until Spurs cannot catch us!

Next few fixtures:

Tue 1st Apr   Arsenal v Fulham
Thu 3rd Apr                        Chelsea v Spurs
Sat 5th Apr   Everton v Arsenal
Sun 6th Apr                        Spurs v Southampton
Sat 12th Apr  Arsenal v Brentford
Sun 13th Apr                       Wolves v Spurs

PS I've removed the twitter/X links as twitter is not somewhere I have been in years, and don't plan on ever returning to.

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Wed, 12 Feb 2025

So far so good...

This season could have an early St T's compared to recent years.

On the 12th February, as I write this, Arsenal are a mere 23 points ahead of Spurs. Spurs have 14 games left to make up that gap. To put mhy usual table in...

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	24	50
Spurs	24	27	23	(14)	(69)

To be sure of finishing above them we need to get to 70 points. So just 20 points and we will have St T's day. Of course Spurs could lose some games too, if they drop 20 they can't catch us.

The quickest it could happen would be if Spurs lost their next three and we won our next four. It won't happen, but it's nice to think about it...

Watch this space over the next few weeks!

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Sun, 28 Apr 2024

St Totteringham's Day at Spurs. Again.

Today's win means that Spurs will finish below Arsenal in the league again.

I would have posted earlier but my host was down. It probably saved me from an over-enthusiastic half time post. But despite the attempt to make it exciting from Raya we got the three points.

The table...

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	35	80
Spurs	33	60	17	(6)	(75)

This is the fourth time St T's has coincided with a NLD result, and the third time it was an Spurs. The previous three were 1927 (Spurs 0-4 Arsenal, May 7), 1975 (Arsenal 1-0 Spurs, April 26) and 2007 (Spurs 2-2 Arsenal, April 21).

St T's is roughly a week later than last year (when it happened after the awful 3-3 draw at home against Southampton), and a game later for Arsenal.

It is also the anniversary of St Totteringham's day 1928, a season which also had the fun of Spurs being relegated, and the 2014 St Totteringham's (we won the FA Cup).

For those keeping score, it is the 53rd St Totteringham's day, which added to the 15 seasons Spurs were in division 2 makes 68 times we've finished above them.

Sadly Forest couldn't help us out.

Happy St Totteringham's Day 2024!

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Sat, 27 Apr 2024

Another huge North London Derby

In summary: we win at Spurs and they can't catch us. A draw and it's St T's day, but the league is almost certainly gone. A loss doesn't bear thinking about.

The table...

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	34	77
Spurs	32	60	17	(6)	(78)

So...

• if we win we'll have 80 points and Spurs will be able to get 75. St T's day.
• if we draw we'll have 78 and Spurs will be able to get 76. St T's day.
• if we lose Spurs will still be able to get 78 and we'll need to find two points from our last three games to beat them.

Come on you Gunners!

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Sun, 14 Apr 2024

I didn't expect that...

I could be talking about yesterday's spanking of Spurs by the Geordies or today's shock Palace win at Anfield. Obviously the latter is more interesting in the race for the title, but the former has more influence on St Totteringham's day.

It is time for me to get out the traditional table to show the gap from Spurs to Arsenal.

	Games	Points	Points behind	(games left)	(max points)
Arsenal	31	71
Spurs	32	60	11	(6)	(78)

Vital we win today for the league race, but it also goes a long way towards those eight points we need to once more beat Spurs.

Won't be easy though, as we know Unai Emery is a good manager and has done a superb job at Villa.

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Thu, 25 Jan 2024

Near the end of January

This is just a short post to reassure people I'm still here. We are doing quite well this season, but sadly so are Spurs. Anyway: as things stand we have a three point lead (which is not a lot) with 17 games to play for both of us (which is a lot). Come back in March or April! (Or sooner if something exciting happens.) Anyway Happy New Year everyone.

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Sun, 23 Apr 2023

Did Newcastle stop trying...?

Spurs woes at Newcastle have cheered me up enough to talk about St Totteringhams Day a bit.

Friday was the first St Ts since 2017. It is the first April St Ts since 28th April 2014, and the earliest since we acheived St Ts at White Hart Lane on 21st April 2007.

It is the 52nd time we've finished above Spurs in the League, compared to the 34 times they've finished above us. That isn't counting the 15 times Spurs had aan excursion to Division 2 (or the two times we did). If you include those Arsenal have finished above Spurs 77 times, to their 36. (And Spurs took 15 years to join us as a league club.)

The six season gap is fourth longest since the first, and the longest since the 9 season gap between 27 March 1959 to 7 April 1969. As I mention in the history pages the longest gap between St Ts is actually from 22nd March 1935 to 6th April 1953. However in that time football stopped for WW2, and the Gunners won two league championships whilst Spurs spent a chunk of time in Division 2.

In all cases those gaps are shorter than the 21 consecutive seasons from 5 May 1996 to 15 May 2016.

In other news... we still aren't certain of a top four finish. Brighton are probably the key team here, we need two points or them to drop some points.

Other teams that can beat us are Newcastle (2 wins needed. However beating them would do it.), United (Three wins needed) and, of course, City (need to win everything from now on!).

Keep the faith.

None of the pundits thought we'd win on 26th May 1989.

(Link put in for younger fans. If you were a Gunner in '89 you'll know that date off by heart!)

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