Jamie Carragher insists there has been no power shift in north London

Jamie Carragher believes that there is still a long way to go before there can be talk of a real power shift in north London, despite increasing talk of Tottenham beating Arsenal to the bragging rights in the area. The Gunners put their rivals to the sword this weekend, pulling off an impressive 2-0 win at the Emirates, cooling talk of a change in guard.

The former Liverpool man believes that a big European star would still choose Arsenal over Spurs and the situation can change only if the Lilywhites managed to finish above the Gunners for a significant period of time. Spurs finished above their London rivals only once in the last 21 years and need the tradition to continue for a few more years for people to see them differently.

Tottenham were overwhelming favourites coming into the game despite having beaten the Gunners only once at the Emirates in their history and were given a demonstration of brilliance by an Arsenal side. However, the former defender has still backed Spurs to finish above Arsenal this season despite the gap between them being down to a single point.

"Tottenham just have the edge and will finish above Arsenal this season, but a power shift, no," Carragher told Sky Sports, as quoted by the Daily Mail. "It has to be five or six seasons where you finish above your rival. I think a big foreign player would choose Arsenal.

"Until we start treating Tottenham like we treat Arsenal, the Manchester clubs and Liverpool, that's when you think they have overtaken them."

Carragher had a few words to say for Dele Alli, who was hooked after the 75th minute following an extremely dire performance. Comparisons were made with Arsenal's Mesut Ozil and Carragher believes the German would have been slaughtered for such a performance and liberties are given to Spurs players compared to other big hitters.

"If Mesut Ozil performed the way Dele Alli did in that game, we would be slaughtering Ozil," he added.

"We still think of Spurs as a young team, there is no bigger fan of Spurs than me, love the way they play, the manager, the players, but we still don't treat them the way we do the other big players. You look at the Spurs players and think, come on, you have got to step up, now is the time."