It's the hope that thrills you! I pray the Spartan spirit in Spurs will see off Arsenal

THAT club on the red side of north London has ruined more weekends for me than bad weather, misbehaving kids, food poisoning and hangovers put together.

It was in November 2010, right, that my beloved Spurs last beat them in the league at their place. Before that, it was in May 1993 that we overcame them at Highbury. The national census comes around more often than us beating Arsenal at their home ground.

As fellow Spurs fans often say: “It’s the hope that kills you.”

Last season, my silos of hope were depleted. Five games into the new campaign, however, and I feel that they are full to the brim, but with a caveat: because I am a middle-aged man, and not an eternally optimistic teenager like my 15-year-old son, I am still harbouring the affliction known simply as “Spursy”.

It is that irritating sense that at any moment we can snatch defeat away from the jaws of victory and revel in a kind of fatalism that ruins weekends. But with each passing week, our new manager (Big) Ange Postecoglou makes me feel less pessimistic about the future.

After every press conference or interview with a player talking about him, and obviously the results on the pitch, my long-term Spurs-itis seems to be being cured by a weekly dose of Angebiotics.