Tottenham's historic rivalry with Arsenal has endured numerous twists and turns but nothing in its long turbulent history - not even when Henry Norris, the then-Arsenal chairman, got the Football League to promote Arsenal illegally to the First Division after the First World War, at the expense of Tottenham - has, matched the drama that started at 1 o'clock yesterday morning in the Marriott Hotel at Canary Wharf. It was worthy of a Hercule Poirot mystery.
At that moment, 10 first-team Tottenham players, including their leading scorer, Robbie Keane, and Michael Carrick were violently sick with food poisioning. For hours it seemed that Tottenham, who had a squad of 17, were not even sure they could field 11 players at West Ham. Indeed, when I arrived at Upton Park at 1.30pm, one Tottenham director told me: "We will have to field 10, have you got your boots?"
The previous night had begun so well. Tottenham, long the underachievers of north London, were ahead of Arsenal and had held fourth place in the Premiership since December. A win at West Ham and there was nothing Arsenal could do to prevent them clinching fourth place. True, they could snatch the accompanying Champions League reward by beating Barcelona in Paris next week, but even then Tottenham could claim to have finished ahead of Arsenal for the first time in 11 years and claim the moral high ground.
As is Martin Jol's custom for London matches, the Tottenham players spent the night before the match at the Marriott, gathering around 7 o'clock on Saturday night. Curiously, the neighbouring Four Seasons is used by Arsenal. A buffet dinner was laid out in a specially booked room and Jol was feeling particularly happy. Many of the players who had been carrying knocks were now fit, including Keane and Carrick.
The Marriott, a five-star hotel, is proud of its cuisine. It claims to "satisfy the most discerning palates with its fresh approach" and the players made the most of the buffet, a lot of them having lasagne.
Then, from about 1am, virtually Tottenham's entire team were violently sick: Davids, Tainio, Keane, Dawson, Carrick, Lennon, Cerny, the reserve goalkeeper, Davenport, Barnard and Lee. Carrick, the most ill, was hardly able to walk. Early in the morning chairman Daniel Levy was informed that the Premier League would have to be asked for a postponment.
The Premier League have the power and asked one of their medical team to go to the Marriott. But when Levy rang Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League said it was up to the club to decide whether they could fulfil their fixture. However, the Premier League would have to hold an inquiry and they could punish Tottenham and even deduct points.
Levy was in an impossible dilemma. Play with 10 unfit players, some of whom could barely stand, and ruin the chance of finishing fourth and losing out on £10 million at least, or not play at all but then face a possible points deduction which would deprive Tottenham of any European place at all.
West Ham could not have been more helpful. They told Scudmaore they were quite ready to postpone the game but did not want the rearranged fixture to be played before the FA Cup final on Saturday.
One suggestion was a postponement until 7pm. Jol felt that the extra four hours would enable some of his players, in particular Carrick and Lennon, to get some sleep and then have enough fluids to last 90 minutes of a Premiership match. By now it was midday, however, and the pubs around Upton Park were full of West Ham fans celebrating their own fantastic season and the police feared what seven hours of drinking would do. The police would accept a postponement until 5pm, but Jol could do nothing with an extra two hours.
So it was decided the match would start at 3pm, and at about 1.30 the Spurs bus pulled into Upton Park. To add to their trauma, Scudamore was at Highbury and it was from this bastion of Tottenham's enemy that he let it be known he could not postpone the match.
In this unprecedented situation, it was entirely understandable that many Tottenham supporters were freely speculating that the hated enemy Arsenal were to blame - unable to countenance the idea of Spurs finishing above them in the league.
As England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and his partner, Nancy Dell'Olio, arrived for one last look at the young Tottenham hopefuls, totally unaware of events, nobody was sure what team Jol would put out. In the event, there was an XI, with five subs, though three of them had food poisoning as well.
The last match of the season always works on two levels: what the players are doing on the field and what the crowd tell them is happening elsewhere. Within five minutes, Upton Park was singing "One-nil to the Arsenal". Five minutes later West Ham scored, and then the Tottenham supporters started cheering as Wigan equalised. Barely had Tottenham hailed Wigan as they led 2-1, than Upton Park erupted with "Two-two to the Arsenal".
It was just then that the one Tottenham player all Upton Park hates, Jermain Defoe, scored Tottenham's equaliser. It is a measure of how they feel about him that while Carrick was applauded as a returning old boy, Defoe's every touch was booed and his goal was greeted with total, hateful silence.
The second half saw Upton Park in much finer voice as they relayed news from Highbury and also saw their team dominate a Spurs team visibly wilting. Carrick left on the hour. Jol made other changes but one Spurs player refused to leave. Edgar Davids' number was held up, but he would not let the dream go. When it was all over, he walked to the Spurs end and tossed his shirt to the crowd. When Levy visted the dressing room, he found many of the players in tears.
At the begining of the season, a Uefa Cup place would have been a triumph for Tottenham; now, defeat after a night of food poisoning was as painful as it was mysterious as the old enemy seized the huge prize.
