Spurs have made the right calls, but it won’t deliver European glory this time

There was a cursory meeting of Arsenal and Tottenham supporters at Frankfurt Airport on Thursday morning, one side beating a retreat from Baku, the other en route to the Champions League final in Madrid. As a snapshot of where the great North London rivals are, and what direction they are heading, it was difficult to ignore the symbolism.

Tottenham may come up short in delivering an unlikely European Cup this evening, but the club is in a good place, one where their rivals in N5 are framed in a rear-view mirror. How has it arrived at this point? Tottenham lost three more Premier League games than Arsenal this season, with 13 of their 38 games ending in failure.