Published: 23 February, 2012
by RICHARD OSLEY

JERMAIN Defoe was on the wireless on Wednesday explaining how this Sunday’s north London derby match “means more to Arsenal than us”.

Yeahyeahyagotitsighzzzzzz.

Bore off.

Still, let’s be honest, for the first time in my lifetime, and that of anybody younger than George Clooney, Spurs are somehow better than Arsenal right now.

They are for once the clear favourites in the derby.

During this historic blip, I think back to what it must have been like the last time Spurs were number one in north London and their double win in 1961.

And who better to bring those forgotten days of black and white television to life than Tottenham’s greatest ever goalscorer Jimmy Greaves?

I think he explained it best in his newspaper column a few years ago.

So here comes what good old Greavsie put in print to explain the Arsenal/Spurs dynamic.

In the Sun. His column. His actual quote. What he said. His words. Check the cuttings. Here it is: “It hurts me to say this, because I was proud to be a part of probably the greatest team in the world during my time at White Hart Lane. Yet even when we had Bill Nicholson as manager and the likes of Dave Mackay, Cliff Jones, Danny Blanchflower and myself, Spurs still lived in the shadow of Arsenal. In the early 1960s, Spurs had a great manager and a great team. But they have NEVER been a great club.”

The prosecution rests, M’lud.

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