The Observer travels deep into the heart of north London to explore whether the bitter rivalry is all it’s cracked up to be
travels deep into the heart of north London to explore whether the bitter rivalry is all it’s cracked up to be
Three miles away, in the Coach & Horses pub on Tottenham High Road, the panel above the bar is bedecked in memorabilia, from signed shirts to flags. This is Spurs territory. A sign hooked around the whisky dispenser reads “Home Fans Only”. An Arsenal fan walking into this pub would quite literally be taking their life into their hands. It’s still only noon, but already a couple of hardened regulars have taken their usual seats at the back of the room.
But what about the rest of the time? What if an Arsenal fan – known pejoratively in these parts as a “Gooner” – were to stray over the threshold? Would they simply be turfed out? Or would a more exemplary punishment be demanded? “Oh, that rule’s just for match days,” Tina explains. “We get Arsenal fans in here all the time. There’s one over there. She’s my daughter.”She points towards the other end of the bar, where a young woman is chatting on her phone.
“That’s religion, though, isn’t it?” posits an Arsenal fan in the Little Wonder cafe just off the Holloway Road. We’ve taken the short trip south, into Arsenal turf, in search of the opposite perspective on this eternal civil war. “This isn’t that. It’s just banter. Bragging rights. I mean, you always get a few idiots causing trouble. But we don’teach other.” “I don’t know about that,” his mate responds. “Tottenham fans are just different, aren’t they? Somehow. I can’t really explain it.
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