And so in a sport defined by flux, where stars are made overnight and empires crumble in a twinkling, Arsenal have enjoyed the luxurious certainty of dominance. Around the turn of the century you would hear Arsenal fans quite openly discussing whether Chelsea, in fact, were now their real rivals. For any fan under the age of about 30, beating Tottenham is not something that has required a great deal of imagination or willpower or even effort. It has just happened, as reliably as gravity, as inevitably as death. It is quite possible that there is not a single player in either squad who remembers the last time Tottenham finished ahead of Arsenal in 1995. That is not just a psychological edge. It is a pair of handcuffs.