The North London derby is the meeting of the association football clubs Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, both of which are based in North London, England. Fans of both clubs consider the other to be their main rivals, and the derby is considered by many to be one of the fiercest derbies in the world. Although the two teams first played each other in 1887, the rivalry did not begin until 1913 when Arsenal moved their ground to North London from Woolwich, south of the River Thames.
As of 24 September 2023, 194 games have been played between the two teams since their first game in the Football League in 1909, with 81 wins for Arsenal, 61 wins for Tottenham and 52 games drawn. When games played before both joined the Football League are included, 208 games have been played, with Arsenal winning 86, Tottenham 67, and 55 drawn.
Notable matches of the North London derby include the games in which Arsenal won the league at White Hart Lane in 1971 and their invincible campaign in 2004, Tottenham beating Arsenal 5–0 at home in 1983 and Arsenal winning by the same score away in 1978, and Tottenham beating Arsenal 3–1 at the semi-final of the 1990–91 FA Cup, which they went on to win. The highest-scoring game in the North London derby is the 5–4 win by Arsenal at White Hart Lane in November 2004. The fixture's top scorer is Harry Kane with fourteen goals, having overtaken Bobby Smith and Emmanuel Adebayor, who have ten goals each.
Arsenal play their home games at the Emirates Stadium in Islington, while Tottenham Hotspur are based at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the neighbouring borough of Haringey. The two stadiums are 4 miles (6.4 km) apart.
History
Early matches
The first meeting between the two teams was a friendly on 19 November 1887, when Arsenal were located in Plumstead (then part of Kent but now in Greater London), and known as Royal Arsenal. The match, played at Spurs' ground at Tottenham Marshes, was abandoned 15 minutes before it was due to end "owing to darkness" with Spurs leading 2–1. The first completed match between the two teams was held the following February in Plumstead; Tottenham could only field nine players, and were thus beaten 6–2.
The two teams competed together in the United League starting in the 1896-1897 season. The first meeting in competition was on 02 November, 1896. Arsenal won 2-1.
Another notable match was in 1898 played at the Spurs ground at Northumberland Park. The match with the then Woolwich Arsenal was attended by a record crowd of 15,000, and the refreshment stand collapsed when spectators climbed up onto its roof in the overcrowded ground, resulting in some injuries and prompting Spurs to start looking for a new ground. The next year the club moved a short distance to what would become known as the White Hart Lane ground. The first League match between the clubs was in the First Division, on 4 December 1909; Arsenal won 1–0.
Beginning of rivalry
However, a proper rivalry between the two teams did not begin until 1913, when Arsenal moved from the Manor Ground, Plumstead to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, just four miles from Tottenham's White Hart Lane, a move resented and opposed by Tottenham as they considered Highbury their territory. The move made Arsenal Tottenham's nearest neighbours and thus began a natural local rivalry. The two teams first faced each other as north London rivals in a War Relief Fund friendly on 22 August 1914 at White Hart Lane. Although Arsenal were in the Second Division and Tottenham in the First, Arsenal won 5–1. They would go on to meet regularly during World War I in the London Combination, the regional wartime competition of the time.
The rivalry escalated in 1919 when, after World War I, the First Division was to be expanded by two teams, and the League held a meeting of the clubs to decide the two clubs by means of a vote. 19th-placed Chelsea, who would otherwise have been relegated, were allowed to stay and thus they took the first of the two spots. The second spot could have been awarded to 20th-placed Tottenham, or Barnsley, who had finished third in the Second Division, but Arsenal (along with four other clubs) also bid for the place, despite finishing sixth in Division Two (although an error in the calculation of goal average meant Arsenal had actually finished fifth, which was corrected by the Football League in 1980).