This weekend's north London derby is precisely the type of occasion the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was built for. It is a £1.2 billion ($1.5bn) bricks-and-mortar manifestation of the club's decades-long struggle to emerge from Arsenal's shadow, something they achieved to an extent under Mauricio Pochettino on the pitch and are now attempting to replicate off it as well.
Spurs took a calculated gamble in proceeding with the project, just as Arsenal did when hatching their plan to leave Highbury in 1997. Both clubs were seeking to position themselves at the vanguard of English football and believed investing in their own backyard was the most viable option.