“St Totteringham’s Day” is that time of the season when Arsenal fans celebrate that their North London rival Tottenham Hotspur can no longer finish above them in the Premier League.
While the “festival” falls at different times during the league campaign, usually between March and May, it appeared for the majority of the 2015-16 season that Arsenal fans would have no cause to celebrate the occasion for the first time in 21 years.
Only last week, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino stressed that players and fans should not be concerned with finishing above Arsenal and only focus on themselves — but the manner of how the final day panned out will be a bitter pill to swallow.
Due to a far superior goal difference, Tottenham losing and Arsenal winning was the only combination of results that would see the clubs swap positions Sunday.
Both teams were playing already-relegated sides, with Arsenal welcoming rock-bottom Aston Villa to the Emirates Stadium and Tottenham traveling north to Newcastle’s St. James’ Park.
Arsenal immediately piled the pressure on its neighbor, with striker Olivier Giroud opening the scoring inside five minutes.
Things went from bad to worse for Spurs, as Newcastle’s Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum gave the hosts the lead 15 minutes later.
Pochettino and his players could feel the runners-up spot slipping through their fingers.
Aleksandar Mitrovic doubled Newcastle’s lead late in the first half, before Argentine Erik Lamela halved the deficit for Spurs just after the hour mark.
It appeared as though Newcastle had gifted Tottenham a lifeline when Mitrovic was shown a straight red card for a late, high tackle on full-back Kyle Walker.
Instead, the opposite happened after midfielder Moussa Sissoko won a penalty that Wijnaldum dispatched for his second of the game.
From then on, Tottenham imploded against the 10 men as Rolando Aarons and Daryl Janmaat added to the scoreline with two goals inside two minutes towards the end to secure a 5-1 victory.
Meanwhile, down in London, Giroud added two goals of his own in two minutes to secure his hat-trick — the Frenchman’s first in the Premier League — and a stoppage time Mark Bunn own goal sealed a comfortable 4-0 win.
“First of all, I want to apologise to our fans and supporters,” Pochettino told reporters after the match. “Because it was a shame that happened on the pitch.
“We have to apologize to our families that suffer in behind us and it’s now difficult to arrive home and explain what happened here.
“I’m very disappointed — I think it was my worst game as a manager.
“It’s my responsibilty but we need to never give up and learn to improve our mentality. It wasn’t a tactical problem, or technical or skill, it was a mental problem.”
Manchester City managed a draw away at Swansea City to ensure Pep Guardiola will be involved in the Champions League next season, as the point means rival Manchester United can no longer overtake it into fourth.
United’s match against Bournemouth was abandoned after a “suspect package” was found inside its Old Trafford Stadium.
