Five special moments that Tottenham Hotspur fans would love to relive again

2017 seems to be a good time to be a Tottenham Hotspur fan – not only are the club firmly embedded as perennial challengers for the Premier League title, but they have one of the most highly rated managers in the world in Mauricio Pochettino, and a handful of the hottest young talent in the world too with the likes of Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Davinson Sanchez and Christian Eriksen.

Given the financial constraints that come with building a new stadium – as well as chairman Daniel Levy’s general tight wallet – how much longer Tottenham’s rise can continue for is anyone’s guess. But as one of the most storied clubs in England – even in the past decade or two – their fans will always have some golden moments to hold onto even if things do go wrong. Here are five of them.

#1 Gazza’s free kick

These days Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne only hits the headlines when his mental health issues cause him to have another meltdown. Unfortunately, Gazza is now a punchline to some and a cautionary tale to many, but in his heydey around fifteen years ago, it could be argued he was one of the best players on the planet and perhaps the most naturally gifted player produced in England since the stars of the 1966 World Cup winning side.

Gazza’s best years were spent at Tottenham, the team he’d signed for in 1988 prior to his meteoric rise to fame following the 1990 World Cup, and 1990-91 – the first season Gazza spent as the most famous player in Britain – was arguably his absolute peak. He led Spurs to the FA Cup final that season by scoring goals against Oxford, Portsmouth and Notts County on the road to Wembley – a road that ended with a semi-final showdown with bitter rivals Arsenal.

It took Gazza a matter of minutes to make his mark on the game. From a free-kick 35 yards out, the England midfielder hit an unstoppable shot into the right-hand top corner, past the dive of the despairing David Seaman in the Arsenal goal. Spurs went on to win the game 3-1, and while the final against Nottingham Forest ended up going wildly wrong for Gascoigne due to a severe knee injury (even if Spurs did win the trophy in the end), his free-kick that shot down their most bitter rivals remains one of Tottenham’s most beloved memories.

#2 Crouch’s header sends Spurs into the Champions League

It’s not often that a single game between two sides ends up being a Champions League eliminator, but that’s what happened on May 5th, 2010, when Tottenham faced off with newly-minted Manchester City at Eastlands in the penultimate game of the season. Spurs – managed at the time by Harry Redknapp – went into the game in fourth place – the Champions League spot – on 67 points, while City sat one place behind them on 66. Essentially, the winner of the game would be guaranteed Champions League football – worth at least £30m – for the 2010/11 season.

The game was a tight one and although Tottenham had the better of the play for the majority of the game, clear-cut chances seemed hard to come by, particularly in the first half, despite a Ledley King headed goal being disallowed for a push. The second was better for Spurs but it didn’t seem like they were destined to score – lanky England striker Peter Crouch hit the post and then missed a header, while Jermain Defoe also saw a good chance saved by City’s keeper Marton Fulop. With the clock ticking, it looked like the race for the Champions League might end up going to the final game of the season.

With eight minutes remaining though, Spurs finally struck gold. A cross from Younes Kaboul was deflected, and Fulop could only parry the ball into the path of the oncoming Crouch, who headed into the empty net to send the travelling Tottenham fans into dreamland. It was a turning point for Spurs – the moment when they became a powerful club again after years of mediocrity in the 90’s – and also the moment when Redknapp’s reputation improved from that of a cockney wheeler-dealer to a genuinely great manager. It’s one of the all-time treasured Spurs moments.

#3 Gareth Bale destroys Maicon and arrives on the world stage

Gareth Bale had been outstanding throughout 2009/10, but it was the pair of games that Tottenham played against Inter Milan – then-holders of the Champions League - in the 2010/11 Champions League group stage that really announced his arrival on the world stage as one of the hottest properties in European football. Over the course of two games – Spurs won one and lost the other – Bale destroyed the Brazilian right-back Maicon – then recognised as the best full-back in the world – and made him look like an amateur.

The first game actually saw Spurs lose 4-3 at the San Siro, but in fact it could’ve been seen as a moral victory for the Lilywhites, who got off to a disastrous start – Inter went 3-0 up in the first fifteen minutes of the game and to make matters worse, Spurs lost their keeper Gomes to a red card as he gave away the penalty that Inter scored their second goal from. By halftime, the English side were 4-0 down and Inter’s lead looked insurmountable. That was until Bale took over the second half single-handedly, and scored a hat-trick to almost salvage the game – including an incredible first goal that saw him run almost the entire length of the pitch.

The return tie at White Hart Lane was even better for Bale. It was this game that saw the flying Welshman really destroy Maicon – an Italian media outlet said he “went past him in a million different ways, reducing him to asphalt” – as he set up goals for Rafael Van Der Vaart, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko, leading Spurs to a 3-1 win. After this game Bale became wanted by all of Europe’s biggest sides and although he eventually moved to Real Madrid, for a moment it was undisputable that Tottenham was home to one of the greatest players in the world – something for Spurs fans to celebrate indeed.

#4 Harry Kane comes of age and dismantles Chelsea

2014/15 was supposed to be a transitional season for Spurs as manager Mauricio Pochettino looked to pick up the pieces left behind from the messy reign of Tim Sherwood. It turned out to be better than expected – Spurs finished 5th – but perhaps the biggest boon of the season was the rise of Harry Kane. It took until November 2nd and a game against Aston Villa for the young striker to score his first league goal of the season, but from there he went from strength to strength, finishing the season with 21 in the Premier League and 31 overall.

His finest moment, though? New Year’s Day, 2015. Spurs were faced with Chelsea, who – due to their flying start to the season under a rejuvenated Jose Mourinho – were practically being considered as champions elect. It was a difficult game on paper for Tottenham and when Diego Costa opened the scoring on 18 minutes, it seemed like business as usual for Chelsea. They hadn’t reckoned on Kane though, as he brought Spurs back into the game with a 20-yard drive, and then played a part in setting up his side’s second goal, a rebound from Danny Rose.

A foul on Kane then brought Tottenham’s third goal – a penalty from Andros Townsend – before he scored his second of the game to put Spurs 4-1 up and the game beyond Chelsea’s reach. It eventually finished 5-3 and would be remembered as the moment in which Harry Kane came of age. Since then he’s risen and risen, with his first hat-trick, first England cap and first England goal coming soon after. With Kane’s status as one of Tottenham’s own, meaning he’s even more beloved by the Spurs faithful, the game that saw him destroy Chelsea is a truly golden moment for fans to relive.

#5 Spurs finally unseat Arsenal in 2016/17

While Mauricio Pochettino’s reign as Tottenham boss has cemented them as perennial title contenders, until 2016/17 one thing they hadn’t been able to do was finishing above their bitter rivals Arsenal in the Premier League table. The last time it happened had been 1994/95, well over twenty years ago – practically ancient history in football terms. Tottenham had come close in 2015/16 but conspired to collapse in the final two games, allowing Arsenal to leapfrog them into the second position behind champions Leicester.

2016/17 would change all of that. Not only did Tottenham push Chelsea all the way in the title race – eventually finishing second, essentially just because Chelsea got off to a quicker start in the season – but they finished a full three places above Arsenal, who ended up in fifth place, outside of the Champions League positions for the first time in over fifteen years too. The game that cemented the fact that Spurs had finally surpassed the Gunners? The game between the two at White Hart Lane on April 30th that saw a comfortable 2-0 win for the Lilywhites.

Arsenal never really stood a chance – outplayed by Pochettino’s troops from the off – and the game was decided by two goals in the space of just three minutes. First, Dele Alli bundled the ball in from close range in the 55th minute before Harry Kane doubled the lead in the 58th with a penalty following a foul from Arsenal defender Gabriel. Arsenal never looked like getting back into the game – they only had 4 shots on target across the 90 minutes.

It felt fated that it would be Spurs’ two best young players who would score the goals to shoot down their biggest rivals, confirming that they would finish above them, and while they didn’t win the league, finishing above Arsenal was enough for a lot of Spurs diehards. This was a moment to treasure forever.