Although a 3-0 win over West Ham United gets their season back on track, Spurs’ late 3-1 victory over strugglers Swansea City still leaves Arsenal 11 points behind their great rivals and the chances of a 22nd consecutive 'St. Totteringham’s Day' look slim to none.
Although Arsenal do have a game in hand over Tottenham, with only nine games left it would take a monumental collapse for them to get over the line before the men from White Hart Lane, although, maybe that’s not out of the question.
2017 marks another year where Spurs look destined to finish ahead of Arsenal in the league for the first time since 1995 and if it’s anything like the last 21, they’ll be foolish to count their chickens.
The Gunners may have held a dominance over their North London rivals in the first decade of Arsene Wenger’s reign, collecting three league titles whilst Spurs suffered mid table mediocrity, the last decade has seen some very close calls on maintaining the streak.
2005/06
Largest Gap: 4th - Tottenham Hotspur (27 played, 46 pts), 6th - Arsenal (27 played, 41 pts)
The last season at Highbury saw 'St. Totteringham’s Day' - a term dubbed by Arsenal fans to celebrate finishing ahead of Spurs - go right down to the final minutes of the season, with UEFA Champions League football on the line.
With nine games to go, Arsenal were able to reduce the gap to two points after a Steven Gerrard back pass to Thierry Henry helped the Gunners to a late 2-1 win over Liverpool, whilst Spurs lost to eventual Champions Chelsea.
The gap soon re-opened up and after a loss at Old Trafford and a 1-1 draw at Fratton Park with lowly Portsmouth left the Reds four points behind Spurs with only five games to go and when they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Tottenham in the final North London derby at Highbury at the end of April, it looked as though Spurs may have done it.
However, 10 goals in their final three games, including an Henry hat-trick in their final game of the season and a case of dodgy lasagne before Spurs’ game against West Ham that led to a bout of food poisoning for some of the Spurs team leading to their 2-1 defeat at Upton Park, saw Arsenal just get over the line to deny Spurs Champions League football.
2011/12
Largest Gap: 3rd - Tottenham Hotspur (23 played, 49 pts), 7th - Arsenal (23 played, 37 pts)
A nil-nil draw with Bolton put to an end a rotten run of three successive defeats to start 2012, which saw defeats at Fulham and Swansea City and a home loss to Manchester United too.
Even with 15 games to go, Arsenal looked too far back on Harry Redknapp’s team who were flying high and twice as close to the top two Manchester clubs than Arsenal were to them. In a season where Arsenal had gone down 8-2 at Old Trafford in late August, this looked to be the beginning of the end of Arsene Wenger.
Especially, when Spurs took an early 2-0 lead at the Emirates in late February following a week that had seen Arsenal lose 4-0 in the San Siro to AC Milan and crash out of the FA Cup to Sunderland.
At 34 minutes in, Spurs were technically 13 points clear but what happened next showed the Gunners strength in character in the second half of the season, scoring twice in three minutes to level the game before half time before going on to win 5-2.
They would only lose twice more that season and although three successive draws should have lost them their third place, Spurs failed to capitalise and Arsenal finished ahead of them again thanks to a 3-2 win at the Hawthorns.
To add insult to injury, Spurs also failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League again thanks to London rivals’ Chelsea’s penalty shootout victory over Bayern Munich in that season’s Champions League final, handing the Blues the final qualifying berth for the competition despite finishing sixth in the league.
2012/13
Largest Gap: 3rd - Tottenham (28 played, 54 pts), 6th - Arsenal (28 played, 47 pts)
It must have been bitter deja vu for the Spurs faithful, having at one stage held a near insurmountable lead over Arsenal, their end of season run blew it again.
When they beat the Gunners 2-1 at White Hart Lane in early March, it looked as though that was the end for the Reds but off the back of a spirited 2-0 win against Bayer Munich, Arsenal put up an unbeaten run to finish the league season and overtake Spurs who won only five of their last ten games to Arsenal’s eight.
Losses to Liverpool and Fulham directly after he North London derby win started the decline and 2-2 draws with Everton, Wigan and Chelsea gave all the initiative back to the Gunners who sealed it with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United on the final day.
Tottenham set a then-record for the most points in a league season to not finish in the top four spots with 72, yet again one point made all the difference.
2015/16
Largest Gap: 2nd - Tottenham Hotspur (35 played, 69 pts), 4th - Arsenal (35 played, 64 pts)
The only team to finish third in a two-horse race, the big story of the season may have been Leicester City winning the Premier League but in North London it was the unceremonious collapse of Spurs yet again.
Trying their best to chase down the Foxes, Spurs looked destined to at least finish in the top two and ahead of Arsenal this season but the ‘Spursiest’ of Spurs collapses took them well off course.
A 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion was the first nail in the coffin for their Premier League chances that were officially ended after they squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at Stamford Bridge the following Monday.
Needing only one win to seal second place from their remaining two games and even most Gooners believing the chances of St. Totteringham’s Day to be over, Spurs not only lost 2-1 at home to Southampton but were humiliated 5-1 at St. James’ Park by already relegated Newcastle United.
The Gunners, in a way hiccuped their way into second place, despite being unbeaten since a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea City at the start of March, their final ten games had been five wins and five draws but with Spurs failing to win any of their last four fixtures it was just enough to extend the streak to 21 years.