Lunchtime kick-offs - horrible things, especially on a Sunday, especially on North London Derby day.
Of course we all understand the reasons for the scheduling and there's no doubt there was less venom in the air than at some previous encounters at the former council rubbish dump at Ashburton Grove. Indeed for the first time in four visits I wasn't personally subjected to antisemitic abuse. Nonetheless midday on a Sunday is a pain for those of a white or red persuasion who go to games and who also happen to be involved in MGBSFL football. Perhaps more on that topic another time.
On the plus side, the early start meant that the knots in stomach, loss of appetite and all-round tetchiness had less time to take root than normal, although all three were very much in evidence. I go through periods of a season when I think I dislike Chelsea more, but despite the banter and digs (and there are some scattered in this blog, for traditions sake you understand!) I have a genuine respect for Arsenal and (myopics aside) for Wenger.
Despite the nefarious means by which they arrived in the top flight all those years ago, they have in the Dein era and since been a proper football club, funding their own growth and new stadium, genuine traditions and under Wenger they have even played football out of the Spurs playbook of beauty. However, when push comes to shove, when I see those red shirts on the pitch I know which rivalry matters the most.
The North London Derby (which of course is actually game between "the" North London side and one from Woolwich) tends to bring out the tetchy, the smug, the arrogant, and the deluded in fans from both sides in the run up to the game. The banter is merciless and so for many it's a game you just want out of the way with the least collateral damage possible. And that invariably means you'd take a point before kick-off.
There's no doubt that most of those streaming out of Wembley on Wednesday night after the Leverkusen game would have bitten your hand off for a point on Sunday. That number might well have risen if you'd told them that as well as Toby Alderwiereld, Spurs would also be without both Eric Lamela and Dele Alli against Arsenal. It's a credit to manager Mauricio Pochettino that since he has been Spurs manager he's not moaned about injuries or allowed them to become excuses for the very few poor results.
For much of last season he was without key players, and yet he trusted the understudies, brought through fresh talent from the Academy and the team barely missed a beat. As a result of the lack of whinging, the media has airbrushed out the adversity of those absences doing Pochettino and Spurs quite a disservice.
This season it's been similar in terms of key personnel missing for several games at a time, but this season the upgrade from Europa and Champions League opposition in mid-weeks has tested the squad depth more and (perhaps related) some league games have not been put to bed and in the case of Leverkusen the performance was genuinely poor - possibly the first really poor performance in 18 months.
Whilst we are not yet a side who can go toe to toe with Europe's elite without half the first choice XI (Rose, Alderwiereld, Lamela, Dembele for 70 minutes and Kane) the reaction from the press and the more hysterical "140 character" so called fans would have had you believe that the Club was in some sort of crisis in the run up to Sunday's game.
Let that sink in for its sheer ridiculousness.
The team was and still is unbeaten in the League, the longest unbeaten run from the start of a season since the Double winners. The team had conceded just five goals in 10 League games (now six in 11) making it the most miserly defence in the Premier League by some distance, despite the defensive absentees over the opening months of the season.
The team still sits just a handful of points off the pacemakers at the top of the league despite having been shorn of its Golden Boot winning wonder boy for two months. The team is better off points wise than last season. On any measure of perspective, the team and manager deserved praise not flagellation for its league form and yet some "pundits" were predicting a humiliation for Spurs on Sunday. Granted the Leverkusen performance was below standards and a response was required. Was it ever really in doubt that Pochettino and his cohort of young eager and ever more battle hardened players would respond? I personally expected a performance and I wasn't disappointed. What very few expected (and judging by the opening 30 minutes neither was Wenger) was a skilfully executed tactical refinement of the system for which Pochettino's Tottenham have become known.
The shift to three at the back, pushing Walker and Rose on and leaving Eriksen free to operate in a pocket of space behind Kane and Son was smart, and for 30 minutes Spurs looked like the home side as Arsenal struggled to work out what was going on. As befits a side of Arsenal's quality, they had a spell of flowing and incisive football in the 15 minutes before the break. In truth, from my vantage point at the back of the lower tier that felt like the only period of sustained Arsenal pressure the whole match and during it Walcott hit the woodwork and Arsenal later took the lead.
After the break Spurs showed no ill effects of conceding that late and controversial own goal (sat as I was directly in line with the offside Arsenal players I will simply say that had it been scored at the other end I fancy it wouldn't have stood) and scored a deserved equaliser from the spot courtesy of the talismanic Kane who now has five in four league games against Arsenal and seems to have some sort of hex over them.
The more authentic chances in second period belonged to Spurs. Perhaps key to that was the tactical nous of Pochettino who subtly altered Dembele's role seeing him take up a slightly deeper position after the break, a move which seemed to stifle the creative spaces in which Arsenal's playmakers like to operate whilst also giving him time to pick up the ball from deep and drive forward, as he did to good effect for the penalty.
The reactions at the end of the game told the story - there were plenty of empty red seats in the home section long before the Spurs players came over to salute the travelling fans. The post-match comments from Wenger (not least the questioning of the penalty award - remarkable how he managed to see that one) were churlish and perhaps reveal a sense from him that it's not just Kane who has a hex over Arsenal, but Pochettino as well.
The Argentine has outthought Frenchman in their league tussles to date and it is possible that come the end of the Wenger reign, this will be the Spurs manager from whom he was never able to take three points.
All in all, professional pride restored on the pitch, bragging rights technically even off the pitch, but there's no doubt whose supporters will have strolled in to work on Monday morning the more chirpy.
In the context of a North London Derby, that state of affairs will do just fine, for now!
Eyes will already be turning to the return fixture - in what will likely be the last at White Hart Lane. I expect more stomach knots, appetite loss and a rollercoaster of an emotional experience. The fans of both clubs wouldn't have it any other way.
Jonathan Adelman is a season-ticket holder at Spurs, and also co-manages North London Raiders B in the MGBSFL
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