LOCAL DERBIES

The word derby is supposed to have come from the classic horse race The Derby, founded by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1780. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a derby had come to mean any sort of sporting contest; so a local derby was simply a sporting contest between two local teams. Nowadays, however, a derby tends to be used exclusively for that local match-up; Manchester United v Manchester City, for instance, or Everton v Liverpool.

There is something special about a derby, that extra rivalry, the extra tension. Today I watched the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs, who are both based in rather dreary suburbs of London. Both are "big clubs", meaning that they have been around a long time, usually in the best English league, have won championships and F.A. Cups at regular intervals, and have big fan bases (there were 60,000 at Arsenal's modern Emirates Stadium this afternoon). When I was a boy, supporting my home town Derby County, Arsenal were known as "boring Arsenal", having a rock-solid defence and no attackers; 1-0 would have been a high scoring match. But in recent years they have acquired attractive (usually foreign) strikers, and their defence has begun to leak like a sieve. This year's start to the season has been their worst in 30 years.

Today's match started in deafening noise and at 100mph. Spurs were quickest out of the blocks and scored after 10 minutes through their striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who used to play for Arsenal. Shortly thereafter, he got a direct red card for a horrible studs-up tackle (a justified decision, viewed from my armchair), and the game changed. Arsenal upped the pace, scored three times before half-time, and ended up winning 5-2. Theo Walcott had a great game on the wing and got the final goal.

Since the Premier League started in the 1990's, Arsenal v Spurs has been the fixture with the highest number of goals. Business as usual this afternoon.

Walter Blotscher