Darren Berry
We Won the League at White Hart Lane (Again)
On this day, 20 years ago, The Arsenal clinched the title at the home of our North London neighbours, on our way to securing our place in the history books as The Invincibles.
Here’s how I remember it, in a full chapter extract from my book “IS YOURS GOLD? THE ARSENAL INVINCIBLES 20th ANNIVERSARY”….
“By now, I would be very surprised if there was an Arsenal fan on the planet that didn’t believe we were going to win the league.
I know this may seem like an alien concept to those of you that were either not around twenty years ago or were too young to appreciate the Invincibles.
Let’s face it, we’ve experienced enough over the past two decades to convince even the most optimistic of us to believe that Arsenal are capable of completely ballsing anything up.
Not the Invincibles, though. They were a different animal altogether. Different to any Arsenal team I’d seen before, and different to any I’ve seen since.
If Newcastle could beat Chelsea in the earlier kick-off, the Gunners would need just a point in the North London Derby to clinch the title. An extraordinary twist to an already extraordinary season.
I’d had more than a few beers the night before (why do we always do that??), but still not enough to give me a decent night’s kip. I went to bed thinking about today’s games and woke up thinking about them again.
As we all know, the build up to a North London Derby brings with it a unique feeling. Usually one of abject terror. Nerves shredded, concentration impossible, underwear ruined.
This was different, though. There was more a sense of anticipation than nervousness.
Having said that, I was nervous, but I was nervous about Newcastle failing to beat Chelsea. If they did, I knew Arsenal were going to win the league today.
With all of this in mind, there wasn’t much else to do but start drinking again as early as possible. There was beer in the fridge, so after a few seconds of careful consideration, I decided that time was now.
I have no idea what time that was, it’s been almost twenty years and a whole lot of weekends since then, but it was early enough for me to be well psyched enough for the Chelsea game, which kicked off at 2pm.
I had to watch this one at home, but plans were in place to meet a couple of mates for our game at 4.05pm. The plan was to watch the game in The Royal Star pub on City Road as it was just up the road from me, then head down to Highbury to celebrate.
The second part of this plan relied on Newcastle getting a result. There was no doubt in our minds what would follow if they did. As I said, this was the Invincibles and, by now, you just knew.
It hadn’t once crossed my mind that Spurs could “ruin our title party” or be the team that prevented us from going the season undefeated.
If Newcastle won, we would be champions a few hours later. End of.
Of course, football being football, there’s always someone willing to chuck a spanner in the works and, after just five minutes, that spanner came in the form of Joe Cole, who put Chelsea 1-0 up.
Perhaps it was going to be Newcastle that would “ruin our title party”, rather than that lot. Plans could be scuppered as well.
Conversations were taking place in my head.
Should we just head down to Highbury after our game anyway? We’d still be on the cusp of securing the title if we beat that lot, whatever happened at St James’ Park. I wanted to go down to Highbury after the game, I hadn’t even considered a Plan B, damn it.
Sod it, just have another few beers and see this one out first.
Shola Ameobi’s equaliser a few minutes before the break, although welcome and greeted by an almighty roar in my front room, did little to make my plans any clearer. I wasn’t entirely sure how close we would be to the title should there be a draw, and this wasn’t a time for doing the math.
Another beer instead, then.
A couple of minutes into the second half, Alan Shearer made everything uncomplicated in the world again with a sensational strike from outside the box.
2-1 Newcastle.
Sheer elation in my front room.
We were just over forty minutes from the title.
My mates were virtually at my front door as the final whistle went, and we flew over to the boozer in time for our game.
I was veering on the “slightly wonky” side of sober by now, but the adrenaline soon sorted that out. Having said that, if you’re expecting an in-depth match report, you’ve come to the wrong place.
It took just under three minutes for Vieira to put us ahead, after a trademark Invincibles move, involving Henry and Bergkamp, from defence to attack in the blink of an eye.
The lead was doubled in the 35th minute with Pires finishing another trademark Invincibles move, one-touch football at its finest cutting the Spurs defence to shreds.
That was it as far as I was concerned. We were not only going to win the title there for the second time, but we were going to do it in style.
Now, as positive as I have been throughout this, I am going to have to admit that what happened in the second half still grates on me slightly to this day. Ultimately, we got what we needed – a point and the title at their place. The fact that we didn’t win the game didn’t matter. I can guarantee you though, I’m not the only Gooner out there that is still a bit irritated that we didn’t clinch it with a win.
Jamie Redknapp pulled one back from twenty yards in the 62nd minute and then, with a minute left, Lehmann was punished for pushing Robbie Keane in the box and Spurs were awarded a penalty. I still think it was a ridiculous decision, but it wasn’t quite as ridiculous as Keane doing his stupid celebration thing. Their fans were celebrating as if they had prevented us from winning the league as well, and it later transpired that some of them thought they had.
In some ways, despite my own lingering frustration, that made it even sweeter.
Imagine being a Spurs fan, celebrating an equaliser against the mighty Arsenal, thinking it meant anything, only for the bloke next to you that isn’t as thick as mince enlightening you when the final whistle went. Then, to top it off, watching The Arsenal celebrating in front of our fans. In your own backyard.
As planned, we headed down to Highbury to celebrate properly. We arrived on Blackstock Road to the inevitable, beautiful, predominantly drunk sea of red and white.
It will come as no surprise to you that the rest of the night is something of a blur, but I do remember, about three hours after arriving at T-Bird, saying hello to my mate who worked behind the bar there.
He had been there all the time and I had been too merry to realise.
He had a good laugh at me.
I didn’t care.
The Arsenal were champions, and…. we won the league at White Hart Lane.
Again.”
As well as this, you can read accounts from fans that were there on that historic day, and there are a few photos from the fans as well.
You can get a 20% DISCOUNT by ordering the book here - https://www.legendspublishing.net/product/is-yours-gold/ - and using the code GOLD20 at checkout!
Up The Gunners!
Darren
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
