Week 11 of the Premier League is just moments away and the biggest fixture of the weekend comes from the Capital City of the United Kingdom, London. Long time rivals from North London will go head to head on Sunday as Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal will take on Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur in the 184th North London Derby at the Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal.
After a fantastic month of October, Arsenal find themselves level on points with Manchester City and Liverpool while Tottenham, who started out strongly in October, have dropped points since and have dropped outside the top four. While Harry Kane is one of the big names missing the clash between the two London giants, it promises to be a mouth-watering encounter.
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The two teams boast a number of world-class players like Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, and Cristian Eriksen. However, arguably the best player to play the fixture in the last decade is Gareth Bale who moved to Real Madrid in 2013 for a world record fee.
Here’s our take on how things could have been different had Bale decided to stay on at Tottenham and not move to the capital city of Spain.
#1 Tottenham would have won the Premier League last season
Gareth Bale and Tottenham made huge strides towards being Premier League contenders during his time at the club. A number of top players like Rafael van der Vaart, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Aaron Lennon and Peter Crouch were vital in Tottenham’s progress from a Europa League team to a Champions League team. However, after Bale’s departure, Tottenham never really threatened for the Champions League spots until last season.
The 2015-16 Premier League season would have been remembered as the year that Tottenham finally won the Premier League if not for a fairytale story from Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City. However, this fairytale would have never happened if the team had Gareth Bale. Bale could’ve been the x-factor that Tottenham lacked and could have dominated the league last season.
# 2 No La Decima
Gareth Bale’s first season at Real Madrid was nothing short of a success. After a stunning goal to win the Copa Del Rey, Ancelotti and Real marched into the Champions League finals. After a last minute equalizer from Ramos, it was Bale who gave Real the lead in the final and the game ended with a thumping 4-1 scoreline. None of this could have been possible without Bale.
The feared BBC trio of Benzema, Bale and Cristiano had a fantastic first year and secured the La Decima and a Copa Del Rey, scoring 97 goals together that season. Gareth Bale’s blistering pace on the left combined with some clinical finishing from the Welshman saw him announce himself as Ronaldo’s new sidekick at Real Madrid.
# 3 Mesut Ozil wouldn’t have moved to Arsenal
If there is a London based team that gained from the Gareth Bale transfer saga, it was Arsenal. After Real made a move for Gareth Bale, Mesut Ozil was seen as surplus to requirements by the club’s board and they sold the German to Arsenal for a club record fee.
And since then the chants of “We got Ozil” have kept coming from the Red end of North London.
The German has grown into one of the most important figures in the club and is the darling of the Gunners’ supporters. The transfer had a major hype around it and the German had a fantastic first season at the club. While last season was not his best, Arsenal and Ozil are back in form this season and look to be on track for a great season ahead.
Ozil proved his class yet again this week after a brilliant goal to win the game against Ludogorets.
# 4 ‘MSN’ may not be as good as they are today
While we know ‘MSN’ as one of the best trios to exist in football, it is true that the trio would not be what it is if not for the success of ‘BBC’ for their rivals Real Madrid in the previous season. After BBC amassed 97 goals between themselves, Barcelona had a lot of rebuilding to do in the summer. The biggest transfer of that window was the move of Luis Suarez from Liverpool to Barcelona.
After a slow start to his career at Barcelona, Luis Suarez teamed up with Lionel Messi and Neymar to destroy every opposition that came their way. In their first season, they scored 122 goals between themselves while they went one better the season after and netted 131. On the other hand, Madrid’s trio netted only 100 in their second season together and 98 in their third and haven’t been able to keep up with camaraderie and class of MSN.
# 5 No St.Totteringham’s Day for 21 consecutive years
A rivalry that is in the roots of the club, Arsenal and Tottenham despise anything even remotely related to the other. Last season, when Tottenham were on course to challenge Leicester for the top spot with one month of football left, nobody thought that Arsenal could catch up. However, as thing turned out, Tottenham fell to Chelsea which handed the league to Leicester.
After their title hopes were squashed, Tottenham went on a poor streak, dropping points for fun. The final nail in the coffin came on the last day of the season when already relegated Newcastle United beat them 5-1. This saw Arsenal finish above Spurs yet again, leading to St.Totteringham’s Day celebrations (The point in the season where Tottenham cannot finish above Arsenal).
