⚽ Live updates from the 8pm BST kick-off
⚽ Get in touch! Share your thoughts with Daniel
Sport’s ability to ape and shape the world means it teaches us many things, often in a friendlier environment than real life. It is, for example, better to learn the Australian states and their capitals during an Ashes series than by rote in a geography lesson, just as the accordant failure and disappointment is – ultimately! – less painful to process when it’s happening to yet another bunch of hapless tourists than when it’s happening to us.
Football, though, is a slightly different thing, the constant competition and the way in which teams are passed down through families installing their nature as part of our personalities, both heirloom and genetics. And within that, there’s supporting Tottenham, a relentless barrage of dark nights and false dawns delivering martyrdom to the afflicted and mirth to everyone else.