The news that Emmanuel Adebayor is staying at Arsenal means any over-excited Spurs fans thinking this is their year to finally overtake their north London rivals should do themselves a big favour and forget about it right now.

The giant Togo striker is key to the way the Gunners play. Without him leading the line - and with Eduardo still a long way from full fitness - Arsenal could have been really struggling for firepower this year. But, now he's finally decided to sign on the dotted line, Arsene Wenger's side look a lot more fearsome prospect.

I've got nothing against Tottenham (although you Spurs fans are bound to disagree) or Juande Ramos. In fact, I think the Spaniard is doing a fine job down at the Lane. He's clearly a more than competent manager - as last year's League Cup win proved - and he's got a great vision for the club's future.

'The arrival of 19-year-old Giovani Dos Santos suggests Ramos has the future of the club in mind - he's not just trying to find a quick fix'


One trait he shares with the most successful Premier League manager of all, Sir Alex Ferguson, is that he's not afraid to make big decisions, even if it could make him unpopular with supporters. Time and again Fergie has sold huge crowd favourites because he believed it was right for the club - something Ramos has done with Robbie Keane. It took guts to let the Irishman go, especially after being in charge at Spurs for such a short period of time.

He looks to have brought in an absolute gem in Luka Modric and, judging by pre-season performances, Ramos also seems to be able to get the best out of Darren Bent. The arrival of 19-year-old Giovani Dos Santos suggests Ramos has the future of the club in mind, too, so he's not just trying to find a quick fix. Whether or not Andrei Arshavin joins him before the start of the season, I reckon Spurs are in safe hands for the foreseeable future.

But, having said all of that, it's far too soon to be talking about overhauling the gap between themselves and Arsenal - and let's face it, that's got to be the first target for Spurs, not least because it would guarantee them Champions League football.

By their own dizzying standards, Arsenal have found success hard to come by over the last few years, and the doom-mongers (including a large number of Spurs fans, I'd imagine!) had been out in force after a mini-exodus at the Emirates during the close season.

But any talk of a decline in fortunes is, I believe, highly premature. Jens Lehmann wasn't getting a game anyway and, with that mouth of his, is better off out of the club, while Gilberto was a great player in his prime but, at nearly 32 years of age, is past his best.

Alex Hleb and Mathieu Flamini will be hugely missed, no doubt about it, but with two more bright young things in the shape of Aaron Ramsey and Samir Nasri on board, the pain of their departure won't be felt nearly as much. Add to this the fact that the fast-improving Theo Walcott will be a year older and a year wiser and those doom-mongers are starting to look a little silly.

But by far the two biggest reasons why Spurs won't be able to overhaul their rivals can be found up front. Keeping hold of Adebayor could prove to be the best piece of business anywhere in the Premier League this summer, while Robin van Persie looks to have put his nightmare season of injury well and truly behind him.

They are both quite exceptional players who can cause huge problems for the best defenders in the world. They simply guarantee goals - and lots of them. With those two on hand to fire the bullets, Arsenal are almost guaranteed to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

Spurs may be a club on the up, and they may well overtake Arsenal at some point, but I'm afraid it won't be for a while yet.