On this day in 1887 a rivalry started – The North London Derby, as we now know it, was first played on this day on Tottenham Marshes – obviously, wasn’t the NLD then, given our neighbours were Royal Arsenal from Woolwich at the time and from south of the river.
Not only did a rivalry start, but the Gunners put a performance that would typify their playing style and ethos for years to come. They arrived late for the match, scored an early goal to go 1-0 up, they proceeded to defend for the rest of the game, showing an early preference for the kind of boring ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ football that Gooners would treasure for years.
However, the Spurs’ attacking ethos not only got them back in the game, we took a 2-1 lead. Then with 15 minutes to go and still trailing, the Arsenal’s players began to complain of ‘lack of light’ and their captain simply led the Arsenal players off and got the match called off, thus establishing the tradition of prominent Arsenal figures claiming they “could not see the incident” whenever convenient!