Ben: “That was for the fans”

Six years at Spurs, approaching 200 appearances, Ben Davies knows what it means to win the north London derby - and his thoughts turned immediately to our supporters after Sunday’s 2-1 victory.

“It felt strange without the fans here,” he told us. “What a day that would have been! But we know everyone is out there, we know everyone is still supporting us and how much they are behind the team... that was for them.”

Alexandre Lacazette fired Arsenal into the lead on 16 minutes, but we responded to turn the game around. Heung-Min Son crucially replied within three minutes and both teams struck the woodwork – Ben with a 30-yarder tipped onto the crossbar by Emiliano Martinez – in search of the winner, duly delivered by Toby Alderweireld’s glancing header home from Sonny’s corner on 81 minutes.

“It was tough, but that doesn’t matter one bit when Toby comes up with that goal, it’s just pure joy,” said Ben. “That means a lot to us.

“It was a hard game. They came into this in good form, whereas we don’t feel like we’ve been at our best. But today, form means nothing. It was just about desire, pride and to a man, everyone put in a phenomenal shift.

“After playing 90 minutes (at Bournemouth) three days ago it’s tough, but when you play against Arsenal, when it means as much as it does, tiredness doesn’t come into it. We worked so hard and, in the end, I thought we deserved the win. They didn’t have too many chances of real note and I thought we were good value for the three points.”

It was a much-needed win in terms of our bid for European qualification for next season, with the three points lifting us over Arsenal and keeping us hot on the heels of Sheffield United and Wolves in sixth and seventh with three matches remaining.

“It was huge,” added Ben. “We spoke about it, we know we have to win every game to stand a chance now and there’s no better motivation than playing against Arsenal. We really put a shift in, and we’re delighted.

“There is no lack of desire in this squad, no lack of effort. We’ve worked hard from the start and it’s results like this that we feel are reward for the work we put in.

"We worked hard defensively, their goal is a shot from outside the box, tough to defend, but to show the grit, determination and character to come back and win a game like that is special.”