St. Totteringham's day arrived this season, after all. In an extraordinary campaign, which has seen Leicester City romp to the title, there was one final twist, as Arsenal pipped Tottenham to second place, when for the longest time, it seemed next to impossible.
Needing a win and for Spurs to lose, Arsenal went about their business as expected against the poorest team in the league this season – Aston Villa. Olivier Giroud was the main man, scoring a hat-trick, all three of them wonderful goals, while Mikel Arteta, in his final match in an Arsenal shirt, forced an own goal off Mark Bunn to cap off a fine evening for the club.
It only got better as Spurs collapsed spectacularly, going down 5-1 to Newcastle United, with three of those goals coming when Newcastle were down to ten men, allowing their North London rivals to finish in their best position in 11 years.
"It looked for many years like that," Arsene Wenger told the club's official website when asked if he Arsenal were going to finish below Spurs for the first time under the Frenchman's reign. "I agree that we did not start the season saying we want to finish above Tottenham.
"But we wanted to win the league and I agree with you there is a frustration because we didn't win the league. (On the final day of the season) we could only play with the target we had and the only one we had before the game was to finish second. We achieved it. For a while our supporters have not been going home happy from here -- at least (after the Villa victory) they had some satisfaction."
That satisfaction, though, came thanks to Spurs' capitulation, and Wenger will know there is a lot of work to do if they are to put in a more sustained challenge for the title next season. It will be difficult to look at this season as anything but disappointing for the Gunners, who were in a position to take the title at the start of the second half of the season, only to see an awful run end their hopes of clinching their first Premier League crown since the unforgettable "Invincibles."
For Spurs, even with that poor result, it should be seen as a great campaign. The third-place finish is their best ever in the Premier League era, and in Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham have one of the best young managers in Europe. If Tottenham can keep their core together for next season, while strengthening in the right places, there is no reason why they cannot challenge for the title one more time.
However, blowing the chance to finish above the Gunners for the first time in well over two decades would have hurt, but all they can do is move on and hope to begin the new campaign, in August, in the best manner possible.
