A St Totteringham's Day Diary.
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Mostly written by Mike Pitt. You can contact me by email on mike-stt@einval.com. Nice
comments only please.
I'm also @sttottsday on twitter.
Original material © Mike Pitt 2004, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023
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St Totteringham's Day was the day when Arsenal fans celebrate the fact that Tottenham can no longer catch Arsenal in the League. It is a movable feast, but usually falls in March, April or May. It was the day to collect on bets made by over-optimistic Spurs fans in the close season who think that "this is the year".
See the links on the left for more information.
Sun, 23 Apr 2023
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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Sat, 22 Apr 2023
A small consolation: Friday was St Totteringham's day
Well. Not so good really. Again.
Firstly the table...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 32 | 75 | |||
| Spurs | 31 | 53 | 22 | (7) | (76) |
St Totteringham's day, the first since 15th May 2016, was Friday 21st April 2023.
Not good for the title race, but the ridiculously optimistic part of me just notes we simply have to win 6 on the bounce. We can do that! So we must been City. Hmmm...
I'll put some stats up some time in the week.
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Sun, 16 Apr 2023
Oh no, not again.
Not yet time to celebrate. Spurs could still beat us on goal difference...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 31 | 74 | |||
| Spurs | 31 | 53 | 21 | (7) | (74) |
Another bad performance from 2-0 up. Two on the bounce is bad for morale. We need a performance from somewhere.
Still it could be worse, we could be where Spurs are. If they drop any points, or we gain any points, it is St Ts day.
We also need a win to guarantee the Top Four Trophy for this season, as this would ensure we also finish above Brighton, and leave only Newcastle and the Manchester teams able to beat us in the league.
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Sat, 15 Apr 2023
Summary: we win at West Ham tomorrow and it is St Totteringham's day. We draw or lose and it goes to next weekend or beyond.
A last minute winner for Bournemouth, who somehow dug it out following the late equaliser for Spurs. Thank you Bournemouth! Good luck to them in their relegation battle.
So we need two points. One point and Spurs could (techincally) still catch us. A win tomorrow would be enough, but West Ham won't be easy. Alternatively the next time Spurs fail to win will do us too as a draw costs them two points.
Anyway, the table...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 30 | 73 | |||
| Spurs | 31 | 53 | 20 | (7) | (74) |
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Tue, 11 Apr 2023
Well. Not so good really. Update delayed due to family visit over Easter!
Firstly the table...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 30 | 73 | |||
| Spurs | 30 | 53 | 20 | (8) | (77) |
We need 5 points: two wins. One win and 2 draws. Or Spurs draw and we win, or Spurs lose and we win. Or 2 Spurs defeats. Or... (I could go on)
A quick look at the next two league matches for the teams:
Sat Apr 15 Spurs v Bournemouth Sun Apr 16 West Ham v Arsenal Fri Apr 21 Arsenal v Southampton Sun Apr 23 Newcastle v SpursLooking at that I think St Totteringham's will happen on or before the 23rd. (Which given Arsenal's next game after that list is probably just as well.)
One side effect of the week's results is now two more teams cannot catch us. On Wednesday 5th, Brentford's loss to Manchester Utd put them on a maximum of 70 (when we had 72) The tiny silver lining of the Anfield result is Liverpool can't catch us any more (now have a maximum of 71).
On 5th April:
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 29 | 72 | |||
| Brentford | 29 | 43 | 29 | (9) | (70) |
And on the 9th:
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 30 | 73 | |||
| Liverpool | 29 | 44 | 29 | (9) | (71) |
They join Fulham, Chelsea, Villa, Palace, Wolves, West Ham, Everton, Forest, Bournemouth, Leeds, Leicester and Southampton.
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Tue, 04 Apr 2023
Another good weekend...
I really didn't expect Everton to do us a big favour. But they did.
Firstly the table...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 29 | 72 | |||
| Spurs | 29 | 50 | 22 | (9) | (77) |
We need 6 points: two wins. Alternatively we need Spurs to lose two. Or some more complicated combination, possibly involving draws.
A quick look at the next three league matches for the teams:
Sat Apr 8 Spurs v Brighton Sun Apr 9 Liverpool v Arsenal Sat Apr 15 Spurs v Bournemouth Sun Apr 16 West Ham v Arsenal Fri Apr 21 Arsenal v Southampton Sun Apr 23 Newcastle v SpursIf we are to win the league then St Ts needs to be in April. Simple as that. I am pretty sure it will happen. The earliest is on Sunday this week, but Brighton aren't totally consistent and Liverpool are due to bounce back at some point... Hopefully though the next time I post here the Saint will be warming up in the wings!
In other news this weekend saw us leave behind a further three teams: Villa, Fulham and Chelsea can no longer catch us:
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 29 | 72 | |||
| Aston Villa | 28 | 41 | 31 | (10) | (71) |
| Fulham | 28 | 39 | 33 | (10) | (69) |
| Chlesea | 28 | 38 | 34 | (10) | (68) |
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Sun, 19 Mar 2023
A good weekend...
A traditional scoreline against Crystal Palace today, coming after a helpful
fightback by the Saints yesterday means we are now 11 points from St Ts.
Firstly the table...
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 28 | 69 | |||
| Spurs | 28 | 49 | 20 | (10) | (79) |
We need 11 points: three wins and two draws, or four wins. Alternatively we need Spurs to lose four, or lose three and draw one. Or some combination of that.
A quick look at the next four league matches for the teams (following the irritating international break!):
Sat Apr 1 Arsenal v Leeds Mon Apr 3 Everton v Spurs Sat Apr 8 Spurs v Brighton Sun Apr 9 Liverpool v Arsenal Sat Apr 15 Spurs v Bournemouth Sun Apr 16 West Ham v Arsenal Fri Apr 21 Arsenal v Southampton Sun Apr 23 Newcastle v SpursLooking at that there is scope for Spurs to slip up. If we are going to have a genuine title challenge, we might also have an April St Ts for the first time since 2013/14...
Fingers crossed.
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Sun, 12 Mar 2023
Comfortable win at Fulham
Lots of reasons to be happy with the result at Fulham: three different
goal scorers; three assists for our newest signing; and Jesus coming off the
bench to get his first playing time since Christmas/World Cup/Surgery.
And three points with suprisingly little stress.
That result and Spurs win yesterday means we are 5 wins and a draw from mathematical certainty, so still too far for me to look at fixtures. I might do that next week. However I will do the table:
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 27 | 66 | |||
| Spurs | 27 | 48 | 18 | (11) | (81) |
To add to the five last week another four clubs can no longer catch us. Results yesterday meant the East Midlands duo of Nottingham Forest and Leicester City could no longer catch us, and our win today means Crystal Palace and Wolves can't:
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 27 | 66 | |||
| Crystal Palace | 26 | 27 | 39 | (12) | (63) |
| Wolves | 26 | 27 | 39 | (12) | (63) |
| Nottingham Forest | 26 | 26 | 40 | (12) | (62) |
| Leicester City | 26 | 24 | 42 | (12) | (60) |
Still looking good for the Saint...
In passing Monday (tomorrow, 13th March) is the anniversary of St Totteringham's day in our 2003/4 season, which is the second earliest St Totteringhams. The anniversary of the earliest passed earlier this week.
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Sun, 05 Mar 2023
Is the Saint returning..?
I've put off restarting this 'blog (such as it is) as I didn't want to
jinx Arsenal's phenomenal season. We are in a title race. A real one. And
the players seem to be coping with the stress. Yesterday's come back was
amazing.
Phenomenal.
Also Spurs lost to Wolves, so it looks like we may have a St Totteringham's Day for the first time since 15th May 2016. That's way too long.
For the Spurs fans: the best run of Spurs above Arsenal was 1959/60 to 1967/8 (nine seasons). Which included Spurs second and last league title.
So the current run of six isn't a record. Despite being painful.
This season is looking good.
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 26 | 63 | |||
| Spurs | 26 | 45 | 18 | (12) | (81) |
We need 19 points to be sure: 6 wins and a draw to guarantee a St T's day. That number also guarantees us a top four finish by the way.
There are five clubs who cannot catch us now, before the epic Bournemouth comeback there weren't any.
| Games | Points | Points behind | (games left) | (max points) | |
| Arsenal | 26 | 63 | |||
| West Ham United | 25 | 23 | 40 | (13) | (62) |
| Leeds United | 25 | 22 | 41 | (13) | (61) |
| Everton | 25 | 21 | 42 | (13) | (60) |
| Bournemouth | 25 | 21 | 42 | (13) | (60) |
| Southampton | 25 | 21 | 42 | (13) | (60) |
I'm not going to comment on the league title at this stage. Save to say it'll be exciting and fun.
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