Tottenham's young talents blossom while Arsenal's wilt

It’s a tale of two North London clubs, each with a visionary foreign manager and a core of young, domestic players, on which the fortunes of the club largely hinge. But while Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Dele Alli seem to truly be on the verge of achieving greatness – either at Spurs or elsewhere – Arsenal’s British core of Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seem to have stalled on the verge of simply becoming reasonably good players.

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Alli and Kane have been among the two best attacking players in the Premier League over the past few seasons. At 21, Alli won back-to-back PFA Young Player of the Year honors in 2016 and 2017. Kane, 23, claimed the same honor in 2015 and went on to take the Premier League Golden Boot the following year. Both have become first-choice starters for England and, if the cards between now and the end of May fall a certain way, the pair just might fire Tottenham to its first league title since 1961.

Kane and Alli are the jewels in a crown of young, impressive domestic talent that also includes the likes of Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier and Eric Dier. Under manager Mauricio Pochettino, this young Spurs side has gone from strength to strength and, without a doubt, has been the most consistent team in the Premier League over the past two seasons.

It’s a stark contrast to what has been going on down at the other end of the Seven Sisters Road.

For starters, many of Arsenal’s “young guns” aren’t really that young anymore.

Ramsey is 26, Walcott is 28. Jack Wilshere is 25. At 23, Oxlade-Chamberlain is still young, but even so, he’s two years older than Alli.

They are all undeniably talented players who have shown, and continue to show, flashes of brilliance. But it’s difficult to remember any one of them stringing two successful seasons together consecutively.

Collectively, they’ve won a couple of FA Cups, which is not to be discounted. But as a group, they’ve failed to mount anything like the actual title challenges that Tottenham’s young talent have inspired. Yes, Arsenal did finish above Tottenham last season, as Spurs sputtered at the death, and the Gunners’ muscle memory of saving their bacon in the final stretch of the season kicked in. But can you honestly argue that Arsenal was a better side last season than Tottenham?

Even if Arsene Wenger does manage to crash land his team into the top four for a 20th consecutive season, St. Totteringham’s Day – the day Arsenal fans celebrate the fact that Spurs can no longer catch them in the league – doesn’t look to be on the docks this year.

The problems at Arsenal obviously run deeper than the arrested development of a few British players. But the youth movement over at White Hart Lane has exposed the Gunners’ relative failure in terms of guiding young prospects to reach their potential. Is the problem the “selfies and six-packs” culture that exists in the dressing room at the Emirates Stadium? Maybe in part. However, Neymar takes more selfies than anyone on the planet and still manages to do OK while winning Champions League and La Liga titles and holding his own with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Certainly, Wenger must be held to some culpability. The Frenchman has excelled at uncovering young talent, but there are questions as to how good he is at nurturing it. His greatest team – the Invincibles – had a spine of already experienced players with a smattering of youth.

The team that came after, which contained the likes of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, had a core of young, talented players. But it was unable to win anything and the best players left to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Arsenal fans have basically been left with the ones that stayed, augmented by a few castoffs from other top clubs – Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona, Danny Welbeck from Manchester United.

But the core – the likes of Ramsey, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Wilshere; the ones Gunners supporters have been waiting on for half a decade or more now – are being left in the dust by the talent that’s emerged at Spurs.

If you think this sounds like the bitter ramblings of a jaded Arsenal fan, you might be on to something. But most clubs in the Premier League, including the two from Manchester, would be hard-pressed not to look to White Hart Lane with a bit of envy regarding what Pochettino has been able to produce in the past two or three seasons. It’s especially notable in that Tottenham’s ascension has largely coincided with Arsenal’s inability to capitalize on the strides it seemed to have been making when it won back-to-back FA Cups in 2014 and 2015.

While Kane and Alli are now being scouted by the likes of Man United, Man City and Real Madrid, few top clubs seem to be interested in Walcott, Ramsey or Wilshere anymore. Tottenham will head into Sunday’s North London Derby looking for three points to keep its title challenge alive. Arsenal on the other hand, goes in needing a win and results elsewhere to fall its way just to keep its top-four hopes alive.

So no, St. Totteringham’s Day isn’t coming this year, and even the thought of a top-four finish requires some “wishful thinking.” But regardless of results on Sunday, the big question for Arsenal going forward is whether being outshone by Spurs is just a blip – or a preview of the “new normal” in North London.