TERRACE TALK: Arsenal: Derby disaster as hopes dashed by able Kane

Highbury is hardly leafy suburbia and perhaps there’s an inevitable bias with me being a Gooner.

Yet although darkest Haringey is only a couple of miles down the Seven Sisters Road from the posh nosh esplanades of Islington’s pampered elite, with all the derelict wasteland that now exists around Spurs, in preparation for their new stadium project, one could be forgiven for mistaking the environs for a war-torn outland.

Invariably nowadays I travel to Tottenham in trepidation, with the same relish I reserve for a trip to the dentist, hoping to come away with some of my few remaining teeth still intact. However with all the hype in advance of Saturday’s encounter and having previously experienced just a hint of consistency for a first time this season, I left home fuelled by more eager anticipation for a derby dust-up at the Lane than I can recall in many a moon.