I don’t hate Tottenham.

There, I’ve said it. I realise that some of you will question my loyalty to Arsenal with that statement, particularly this week, however, it’s true. I really don’t.

“Hate” is a strong word anyway, and I’m sure many of us who use with regard to Tottenham don’t really mean it. It’s not as if we’re talking about some dictator as we might hate Robert Mugabe if we lived under his vile Zimbabwean regime. Hating another football club is more akin to a child that hates vegetables.

Nevertheless, I realise that readers must be wondering how serious a Gooner I can be if I don’t mind vegetables.

The composition of my primary and secondary school playgrounds were roughly 45% Arsenal, 45% Spurs and 10% others / none and so it was with some trepidation that I would go to school on Monday mornings after a defeat against Spurs, matched, of course, by my early arrival after a victory. Fortunately the 1970’s were reasonably kind to us in terms of north London derbies so perhaps that’s why my antipathy failed to grow into anything approaching obsessive.

The last twenty years or so have seen such a gulf emerge between the two sides that my feeling is that Spurs are more irrelevant than anything. It’s only in the last couple of years that they’ve begun to look anything like a decent side over the length of a season, and before then I felt they were more like an irritating fly buzzing around the Arsenal ointment. In our last four championship winning seasons we’ve only managed two league victories against them, the rest being draws.

The tension that games between the teams generates is so great that the results are unpredictable. This frustrates me more than anything. Over many of those years the Arsenal game has been Tottenham’s cup final and they pull out the stops in order to nick points where any other team of their quality would have been easy to swat away.

Fixtures between the two sides are usually disappointing affairs in terms of quality because of this tension which for me is not compensated for by the passion of loathing that my fellow fans possess and which probably distracts them from the game itself. Going to the Arsenal v Spurs match is a chore not a pleasure. I know it’s going to be painful. Yes, we’ve had some easy wins with big scores, but usually they’re scrappy, nervy games, and it’s rare that we see Arsenal at their best.

One of the interesting things about not hating Tottenham is the reaction I receive when talking to other Spurs fans. I must admit I take a particular liberty by telling them that, like me, very few Gooners really hate Spurs. I tell them that for the vast majority of us Tottenham are just another club like Aston Villa or Sunderland. I explain that while there may have been a deep rivalry in the past, that’s gone now that Arsenal are so far ahead of Spurs in all measures of football success. I explain that for us Chelsea has probably taken over from Spurs as the big London rivalry, and that overall our sights are aimed at Manchester United as the team to beat.

They hate hearing that.

Indifference is far worse that antipathy. And so it turns out that while I have less of a problem than many of the rest of you with Tottenham I’m quite adept at winding their fans up.

Try it with your Spurs supporting acquaintances. I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results, especially if, unlike me, you do stand up if you hate Tottenham.

(Ed's note - while we are on the subject, just a quick reminder that even if you don't hate Tottenham, for those that merely want to remind them of the balance of power in north London, these t-shirts are being sold for charity at tomorrow's game.)