The unshakeable Spursyness of Tottenham Hotspur under Ange Postecoglou has been well established, but in recent weeks their great rivals are beginning to look distinctly Arsenal-y. Just what that means is tougher to define than for their north London derby opponents.

First there was a surprise throwback to the pragmatic George Graham teams with Mikel Arteta’s reliance on set-pieces this season, then faint echoes of the near misses and hard-luck stories which blighted the late Arsene Wenger era. All with the familiar soundtrack of an always-lively online fanbase making their feelings heard.

So Wednesday night’s game pits two of the most perpetually disappointed fanbases in British football against one another, with each approaching their final form: Arsenal, the obviously enormous club who have flirted with the era-defining dominance of Liverpool, Man Utd or Man City but never quite pulled it off. Spurs, the team you can only rely on to do the unexpected. Which is more fun?

Let the record show that Spurs have a slight statistical edge in several categories which often make for exciting matches. They have scored more league goals than Arsenal this season, converted more chances, had more of the ball, dribbled more, played fewer long passes and are far less reliant on set-piece goals than Arteta’s side. Only Wolves and Brentford fans have seen more goals in league games involving their clubs this season than Spurs.

‘They’re the billion-dollar Stoke’

Of course all of that overlooks the most important statistical measure, which displays a 16-point and 10-place gap between the teams in the table. Yet the route to Arsenal’s supremacy is undeniably less thrilling in 2025. “They’re the billion-dollar Stoke, aren’t they?” says Rob White, a Tottenham season-ticket holder whose father John was part of their double-winning side in 1961.

“There’s not an awful lot to like about them. Odegaard should be a Spurs player, but then we’d probably ruin him. I’m pleased [Bukayo] Saka is injured for Wednesday, I understand what a good player he is; Arsenal are a different prospect when he plays.”

“I think the slightly more risk-averse football that Arteta has played for the last few months has not pleased a lot of people,” concedes comedian and Arsenal fan Ian Stone. “Two years ago was the dream, it was so exciting and a bit on the edge. This is more controlled and, if we’re winning, I don’t mind. I grew up watching quite obdurate teams so I’m more than happy with that, but I would prefer the iteration from the season before last.”

Injuries are making the shortcomings of both teams more challenging. “When Gabriel Jesus went off against Man Utd I said it’s like Final Destination with our attackers at the moment,” says Alex Brooker, Arsenal fan and host of The Last Leg on Channel 4. “It feels like they were all on a plane with Saka, he got them all off and now they’re all going down one by one. [Gabriel] Martinelli and [Leandro] Trossard must be s-––-g themselves. [Kai] Havertz thinks his punishment is to keep on playing.”

He is phlegmatic about the current mini-wobble but sees parallels to last season, with games of dominance lost and a sister to FA Cup exit to Liverpool with Newcastle’s League Cup semi-final first-leg win.

‘I’ve never known such excitement about corners’

The set-piece fetish does not bother him. “In all my years as an Arsenal fan I’ve never known such excitement about corners.” But some patterns are beginning to grate. “I think there’s some sort of world record for the most times a team has cut inside and floated in a cross and we’re trying to break it. That is all we do, it’s every single move at the moment and it’s quite widely known that we don’t have anyone in attack.”

There is ammo for both sets of fans ahead of this meeting, and for all of the wacky adventures under Postecoglou the Spurs contingent are enjoying Arsenal’s run of three games without a win. “It was meant to be this glorious new era and now it’s becoming like Pulisball,” says Rosa Anderson, host of the Hometown Glory podcast. “It looks like Arteta has got in his head about losing the league and just wants big strong players and to all be about set-pieces. But if you’re not going to win, what’s the point?”

She is a staunch Postecoglou supporter but has gripes with how the club is run. “There’s a feeling that we’ve been gaslit into thinking we’re not a big club, we don’t deserve trophies. We pay a lot of money for tickets, we shouldn’t settle. Most fans feel there’s so much money going into the club, how much is actually going on the team?”

No such existential woe among the reasonably-minded majority of Arsenal fans, despite any #Artetaout propaganda you may have seen on social media. “Mikel Arteta has done an amazing job to drag us back to competing on all fronts,” says Alan Alger, writer for The Gooner fanzine. “The expectation levels have gone up and those extremes in the fanbase who want everything now and shout the loudest get heard.

“If you look at it in a calm and rational way Arteta has been one undrawn offside line and one ball out at Newcastle away from winning the last two titles. All that the people who wanted Arsene Wenger out wanted was for us to be challenging again. It’s not a thing to demand trophies, the only demand a club like Arsenal and their fanbase can have is to be challenging.”

I ask all five fans what they think of their opponents and if they have ever felt jealousy towards them.

Jealous not jealous

Alex Brooker: “I’ve heard the Spurs stadium is quite good. Arsenal changed to Camden Hells a couple of seasons ago, up until then it was some of the flattest Carling you’ve ever had. When you hear of your rivals having a microbrewery in their stadium you think: ‘Yeah, who wouldn’t want a microbrewery?’”

Rosa Anderson: “Supporting Tottenham, we’ve got a certain amount of self-awareness, we’re quite self-deprecating. There’s nothing you can say to us that we haven’t already said and we have a lot of fun with it. So, in that sense, it is lovely, but it’s objectively crazy to say we have more fun than Arsenal, because they’ve got all of those trophies and we have not. We hold on to our most disappointing moments, it becomes part of the fabric of who we are. It’s making us better people, it’s really character building. I’ve got enough character now.”

Alan Alger: “As an Arsenal fan it’s great watching Spurs because they usually create a good game but very rarely take anything from it. It’s the perfect scenario.”

Rob White: “Arsenal’s frustration seems worse than ours at the moment, because there’s a level of acceptance within us. All we want is a trophy, any sort of trophy. They’re desperate to be a big club again. Moving from Woolwich, I know it’s a long time ago and an easy swipe, but I still think they have a lack of identity and a confusion within themselves. I know I’m grasping at straws, but we’ve won more European trophies than they have and more League Cups, which is quite peculiar for a club that thinks they’ve won a lot of trophies.”

Ian Stone: “To Dare Is To Do for them; that’s their motto, right? And I don’t think their fans would have it any other way, which is why [Jose] Mourinho and [Antonio] Conte were such a total disaster. We’ve had the George Graham era but I don’t think our fans would have that again. I don’t mind watching them but it’s a little bit nuts, isn’t it? Their fans aren’t enjoying it either, really.”

So no sign of a truce but the result on Wednesday will go a long way to deciding the only piece of silverware the clubs may end up contesting this season: the title for north London’s most fun club.