CHAMPIONS

Twenty years on, the story of the day Arsenal won the Premier League title at White Hart Lane for the second time

Gooner Editor Layth recalls a day no Arsenal supporter will ever forget in this must-read 'I was there' 

On the day that Arsenal won the Premier League title at White Hart Lane I was there in the stands - among the Tottenham Hotspur faithful. Behind the enemy lines.

It was a day I’d never forget.

Arsenal fans massed in the away end at ‘The Lane’ and hoped - no, longed-for - a result that would clinch the Premier League at the home of their bitter rivals.

On that gloriously sunny spring day Arsene Wenger was at the height of his powers. The Gunners were unbeaten in the league with only four matches to play.

In 1971, another Arsenal team had won the double at White Hart Lane in front of more than 50,000 fans. Another 50,000 were said to have been locked out.

Prior to kick-off on that afternoon, 33 years later, Wenger’s side were gunning for the league and their own place in history.

There might not have been the prospect of a double or even treble to consider after Manchester United had triumphed in an FA Cup semi-final clash three days before Wayne Bridge stunned Highbury to send Chelsea into the last four of the Champions League.

Many fans still believe that was the season that Arsenal could and should have won the one major trophy that eluded Wenger during his 22 years in charge.

Fortunately, the 2003-04 season delivered its own worthy climax. Pre-match shenanigans started when the Arsenal coach, containing the players who would conquer White Hart Lane that day, was subjected to a hail of missiles from angry Spurs fans.

Whether it was the usual derby day tensions, or fury at the fact their former captain Sol Campbell was excelling for the Arsenal after leaving N17 for Islington on a free transfer, it was hard to tell.

The defender’s move across north London, engineered by the wily David Dein, had shocked the football world.

As I watched the projectiles smash into the tinted windows of the coach as it edged to the ground down Tottenham High Road via Bill Nicholson way, I could confirm it was most definitely the latter.

Newcastle United had beaten Chelsea ahead of kick-off. That meant Wenger’s side required a single point to capture the league title for the 13th time in their history on their rival’s own turf.

With only 180 seconds on the clock, Thierry Henry collected the ball outside his own box to set off a passage of play that culminated in Patrick Vieira scoring past Kasey Keller from a Dennis Bergkamp cross.

A sweeping move that lasted a mere 11 seconds, started and ended by two of the great icons of the Wenger era, with a third making sure of the final ball.

It was one nil to the Arsenal but it soon became 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining of the first half. Bergkamp, relishing his role as tormentor-in-chief, once again fed Vieira as he charged through Tottenham’s lines. Paddy doubled the lead.

I was sitting in the West Stand lower near the dugouts and the press box as the ball hit the back of the net.

Although I had been to the majority of fixtures home and away that season I could not get hold of a cherished ticket in the away end at White Hart Lane that day. Thanks to a bit of resourcefulness, I still managed to get in. With the home fans.

Tempting fate? Possibly. But as any Arsenal supporter who has booked a trip to Baku or any other European final before progress was secure will know: you have to have a Plan B.

Deep in enemy territory I needed to be careful. I simply couldn’t react on my emotions in the moment. The home crowd were eager to unleash their own feelings, mostly those of frustration, I have been an obvious target for them to vent.

Unfortunately, had anyone been paying close attention, I did have a tell. My adrenaline levels were surging. I could feel my right cheek twitching involuntarily on sight of the second goal - something that had never happened before, nor since.

At 2-0 up, with the title in sight, 3,000 Gooners in the away end reminded their hosts, loudly, that it was 43 years and counting since they last won in the league – in black and white to boot.

Perhaps it was understandable that with the title all-but-clinched Arsenal’s intensity dropped.

The lead didn’t last. Jamie Redknapp and a Robbie Keane penalty brought the game level at 2-2.

Rivalry runs deep in the North London derby and the Spurs fans around me were celebrating as if they had won the league - not merely staved off defeat while their rivals won the league in their home.

“We’ve done it, we’ve done it,” one fan behind me bellowed.

“Done what?” I asked myself, taking the opportunity to kick off a trainer so I had an excuse to disappear beneath the wave of celebration to retrieve it. Anything to not be part of the reaction to the equaliser that put everything at risk.

The jubilation was not confined to the stands. It was out there on the pitch too.

Argentinian defender Mauricio Taricco, who prior to the equaliser had suffered a torrid afternoon chasing the Arsenal forward line, somehow managed to pull his hamstring during the revelry.

On the final whistle a visibly angry Henry gathered his troops and pointed out what Taricco had done. Despite the warnings against doing so from the powers that be before the game, he took his team to the corner where the Arsenal fans had congregated.

He then told his men to celebrate long and hard on the White Hart Lane turf.

“We certainly made sure we celebrated after,” recalled Ray Parlour when I asked him about his reaction to the result years later.

"I knew how big the rivalry was between the two teams growing up as a young Arsenal player, and we knew how special a triumph like that was for the fans as well.

"So we made sure we enjoyed winning the league at White Hart Lane."

Tottenham fans, mirroring their team, claimed that they had restored a semblance of pride.

But it was Arsenal who had won the league at White Hart Lane for the second time in the history of the North London derby – that was all that mattered to the visitors.

Arsenal fan John Williamson, who has attended more than 3,500 Gunners matches, was also present at the game and recalled how hairy it became for the visitors after leaving the stadium.

“Spurs fans were furious that we had won the league at their gaff,” he said.

“They had congregated outside the away end after the game like they normally did so that they could try and attack Arsenal fans.

“Arsenal fans stayed in the ground celebrating with the team for a long time but many Spurs fans had waited.

“There was a big police presence that day and it was a bit hairy, but as soon as we got back to the red side of North London we could continue our celebrations that had started in the ground.

“It was a day I’ll remember forever. And that's coming from someone who was at the 5-0 victory at the Lane in ’78.”

I was in the lower tier of the main stand, near to where the dugouts were and remember staying as long as I could to savour the moment, watching Henry and the rest of the team cavort in front of the away end.

Wenger himself joined in with the players afterwards, and in a shot which encapsulated the era, is pictured with his hands in the air in triumph in front of the celebrating Gooners.

In the background is a flag raised proudly by the fans. It read simply: "Arsene Knows."

Yet when asked whether his team would be celebrating the title that night, a deadly serious scowl came over him as he insisted: “No champagne - just water.”

It was unclear whether the dressing room heeded his advice.

Parlour could only smirk when the question over what the players got up to after leaving the pitch was posed.

“What did I do that night? I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t remember.

“I think I went out and celebrated for about three days afterwards!”

But Parlour and his teammates knew that the manager’s goal was to achieve a feat that had previously been thought impossible: to go unbeaten throughout a full 38 match league campaign – an accomplishment which would turn an extraordinary season into an immortal one.

One which would see them labelled for all eternity as The Invincibles.

And yet the day that Arsenal secured the Premier League title at the home of their great local rivals will live long in the memory of fans in its own right, claiming glory on the most hostile of territories both on the pitch - and in the stands.

Twenty years today Arsenal won the league at White Hart Lane (for the second time)Buy our Invincibles special issue @GoonerFanzine to relive that glorious day from the Gooners who were there https://t.co/A53IWmJSeF pic.twitter.com/6od50PnLpN

— The Gooner (@GoonerFanzine) April 25, 2024