Picking a combined Arsenal and Tottenham XI is a good way to fall out with everyone you know in north London. Arsenal fans think it should be ten of theirs plus Pat Jennings. Spurs fans will bring up the Double and Harry Kane, and remind you that the 1963 Cup Winners' Cup made them the first British club to win a European trophy. Both have a point. I've tried to be fair without pretending it comes out even. It doesn't.
I've only counted what a player did for Arsenal or Spurs. The years in brackets are their time at the club.
The ones who crossed
Pat Jennings and Sol Campbell are the big two who played for both, and both make this side.
Jennings kept goal for Spurs from 1964 to 1977, 472 league games, then went to Arsenal and played another 237 in the league, over 300 in all. Spurs thought he was winding down. He played in three FA Cup finals in a row for Arsenal and won the one in 1979.
Campbell went the other way with a lot more noise. He was Spurs captain and lifted the League Cup in 1999, then let his contract run out in 2001 and joined Arsenal on a free. His first trip back to White Hart Lane in an Arsenal shirt was in November 2001, and the reception was about what you'd expect. He won the double that season and went through 2003-04 unbeaten.
Willie Young made the same move in 1977 and won the FA Cup two years later. William Gallas went from Arsenal to Spurs in 2010, and Emmanuel Adebayor got there via Manchester City. George Graham won the 1971 double as an Arsenal player, managed them to two titles, then managed Spurs to that 1999 League Cup with Campbell as his captain.
The XI
4-3-3. Blanchflower and Vieira do the work so Hoddle can play. Kane drops in to link it up, which gives Henry and Bale the space either side of him.
Pat Jennings (Spurs 1964 to 1977, Arsenal 1977 to 1985). On Arsenal alone David Seaman has the better case. But nobody else gave over 700 league games to north London, and he's the one keeper both sets of fans would sign off on.
Lee Dixon came from Stoke in 1988 for George Graham and won four league titles, the last two under Wenger. Kyle Walker was quicker and better on the ball, and for about three seasons he might have been better full stop. Dixon did it for fourteen.
Tony Adams has a picture for this. May 1998, Everton at Highbury, Steve Bould chips one over the top and the captain runs on and smashes it in with his left foot to seal the title. That was one of three league titles he won as captain, in three different decades, across 504 league games for the only club he played for (Arsenal 1983 to 2002).
Sol Campbell (Spurs 1992 to 2001, Arsenal 2001 to 2006). Over 250 league games for Spurs, then 135 for Arsenal. The header in the 2006 Champions League final came in red and white, but Spurs had him for nine years and made him captain, so I'm counting both.
Ledley King is the Spurs fan's answer here, and it's a decent one. One club for his whole career, captain when Spurs beat Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final, and he spent years playing on a knee that wouldn't let him train. Fit, he might have been the better defender. I still go Campbell, because he did it for longer and at the top of both clubs.
Ashley Cole (Arsenal 1998 to 2006). Kenny Sansom played twice as many league games for Arsenal and was England's left back for most of the 1980s, and Spurs fans will mention Cyril Knowles. I went with Cole because at 23 he was the left back in a side that didn't lose a league game all season, and I can't find a better one in either club's history.
Danny Blanchflower captained the 1960-61 Double side, the first in the twentieth century to win the league and FA Cup in the same season, and he was the brains of it. He set the tempo and organised everyone else, and he was Footballer of the Year in 1958 and 1961. Dave Mackay is the obvious rival, and in a lot of Spurs fans' XIs he'd go in first. But I've already got Vieira for the hard yards, and next to Hoddle I'd rather have the man who thinks for the team. He was captain again when Spurs won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963 (Spurs 1954 to 1964).
Patrick Vieira (Arsenal 1996 to 2005). Arsenal signed him from Milan on Wenger's word before Wenger had even arrived. In April 2004 he scored at White Hart Lane in a 2-2 draw that won Arsenal the league on Tottenham's own pitch, and his last kick for the club won the 2005 FA Cup final on penalties against Manchester United.
Glenn Hoddle is where Arsenal fans start shouting, because his place costs Liam Brady and Cesc Fàbregas, and indirectly Bergkamp. But with two runners in front of him I want the best passer in the building on the ball, and for my money that's Hoddle. He scored in the 1982 FA Cup final and then hit the penalty that won the replay against QPR (Spurs 1975 to 1987).
Gareth Bale did most of his best Spurs football from the left. Here he's on the right, cutting in on his left foot, the way Madrid used him later. In October 2010 he scored a second-half hat-trick at the San Siro and Spurs still lost 4-3 to Inter. He was PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2011 and again in 2013 (Spurs 2007 to 2013, on loan 2020-21).
Harry Kane (Spurs 2009 to 2023). 280 goals for Spurs, three Premier League Golden Boots, and the club record off Jimmy Greaves against Manchester City in February 2023. He's in for the goals, but also because he spent years dropping deep to make them for others, which is the job I'd otherwise have given Bergkamp.
Thierry Henry is Arsenal's record scorer with 228 goals and won four Premier League Golden Boots. The one Spurs fans remember is November 2002 at Highbury, when he picked it up in his own half, ran straight at their defence and scored, then kept running to knee slide in front of the away end (Arsenal 1999 to 2007).
Manager: Bill Nicholson. Wenger's Invincibles season is the best single argument on this page, and I nearly went with him. Three titles, seven FA Cups and a whole league season without a defeat is a lot to leave out. But Nicholson built the Double side, then broke it up and built another one that won in Europe twice, the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963 and the UEFA Cup in 1972, with three FA Cups along the way. Building one great team is hard enough. He did it twice, at a club he'd also played for, and that gets him the job.
Close but not quite
- Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal 1995 to 2006). The hardest call by a distance. If you want a 4-4-2 with Bergkamp off Henry and Kane on the bench, plenty of people would back you, and I wouldn't argue for long.
- Jimmy Greaves (Spurs 1961 to 1970). 266 goals for Spurs and a debut hat-trick against Blackpool. Probably a better pure finisher than Kane, but Kane does more for this side.
- David Seaman (Arsenal 1990 to 2003) and Hugo Lloris (Spurs 2012 to 2023). Both lost out to the keeper who played for both clubs.
- Dave Mackay (Spurs 1959 to 1968). Broke his leg twice and came back to captain Spurs to the 1967 FA Cup.
- Liam Brady (Arsenal 1973 to 1980). PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1979.
- Son Heung-min (Spurs 2015 to 2025). A shared Golden Boot in 2021-22, and captain when Spurs won the Europa League in 2025. He'd walk into most combined sides, but the left of the front three belongs to Henry.
Build your own
If your house is split down the middle, put your own combined side together in our team builder, with your formation, kits, title and a message. Or pick your Arsenal or Spurs heroes and leave the other lot out. We email a proof before printing, prints are £99 or £149 in a black or white frame, and UK delivery is free. If you'd rather have a classic team on the wall, start with the Arsenal prints or the Spurs prints.