It appears as though Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United will have both fallen short of their desired goals for the season by the time they face each other in the last ever match at White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon.
Spurs are now powerless to prevent Chelsea from winning the Premier League title should the Blues beat West Bromwich Albion on Friday night, while United could be seven points adrift of the top four by the time their match gets underway.
Tottenham
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A combined table of the past two Premier League seasons puts Tottenham Hotspur as champions by some distance, yet they look almost guaranteed to now miss out on a first league title since 1961 for the second campaign running.
Spurs have been accused of choking at key moments this season - namely against Chelsea in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and last Friday when a 1-0 defeat at the hands of London rivals West Ham United all but ended their title hopes.
However, dismissing Mauricio Pochettino's side as bottle-jobs does a disservice to their fine form for the vast majority of the campaign, including a nine-match winning run to keep the pressure on Chelsea prior to that slip-up against the Hammers.
Despite the disappointment of almost certainly now missing out on the title, Spurs have the significant consolation factors of Champions League football next season and finishing above North London rivals Arsenal for the first time since 1995 to fall back on.
Even a Chelsea win at West Bromwich Albion is unlikely to spoil the mood this weekend as Tottenham bid farewell to White Hart Lane - their home of 118 years which has seen special moments including Spurs claiming the first double of the 20th century in 1960-61.
The great players to have graced that turf in the white of Tottenham will roll off the tongues of every football fan, from Jimmy Greaves, Dave Mackay and Danny Blanchflower through to Glenn Hoddle, Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne.
More recently Luka Modric and Gareth Bale have lit up that corner of North London, and the current crop of players - Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Hugo Lloris et al - look set to write their own names into the history of a club whose future arguably looks brighter than it ever has.
Bill Nicholson remains perhaps the most towering presence in the club's history, but in Pochettino they have a manager who has shown more promise than any since the double-winning boss stepped down.
The next chapter of Tottenham's story will take place at a brand new stadium, following a brief interlude at Wembley, but the final chapter at White Hart Lane has so far been a fitting tribute to the stadium and Spurs will be desperate to ensure that it has a happy ending.
Tottenham have the best home record in the league this season, dropping just four points in front of their own fans, and if they avoid defeat against United on Sunday then it will be their first unbeaten season at home in the league since 1964-65.
Indeed, in all competitions Spurs have won 20 and drawn two of their 22 outings at White Hart Lane this season, including victories in their last 16 consecutive games. Another win this weekend would also equal their club-record run of 14 straight home league wins, set over two seasons from January to October 1987.
The problem of Wembley, where they have lost three of five outings this season, will need to be addressed before they make it their home next term, but for now the focus will all be on White Hart Lane.
It is also perhaps worth noting, after last season's collapse, that Spurs still need two points from remaining games against United, Leicester City and Hull City to mathematically secure second place and their best league position since 1962-63.
Spurs are on the brink of the best defensive record in the club's history too, having conceded just 23 goals all season - second only to Bayern Munich in Europe's top five leagues. Tottenham's previous club record for fewest goals conceded in a season is 32, set in the 1908-09 and 1919-20 campaigns, when they were in the second tier.
Recent form: WWLWWL
Recent form (all competitions): WWWWWL
Man Utd
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A North London double-header against Arsenal and Tottenham will rarely have been greeted with such little fanfare from Manchester United fans, whose gaze is now firmly fixed on the Europa League.
In a week where Tottenham fans will be looking back with nostalgia, many United supporters may have been yearning for the days of Roy Keane versus Patrick Vieira when watching their players fraternize so jovially with what used to be their fiercest enemy prior to last Sunday's 2-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal.
The sad truth is that the fixture - perhaps for the first time in Premier League history - barely seemed to matter to the fans despite it being a make-or-break game for either's top-four hopes.
Many United fans shrugged off the end of their 25-match unbeaten streak and would probably do the same if they fall to a second consecutive defeat for the first time since September this weekend.
Jose Mourinho's side have had a top-four place in their hands on a few occasions in recent weeks, but a three-match winless streak in the league has left them down in sixth place and they could be as many as seven points adrift of the top four come kickoff at White Hart Lane. That would mean that anything other than a win would mathematically end their chances of Champions League qualification via that route.
Mourinho has already set the ceiling of United's hope at fifth place over the final three games of the season, but fortunately for the Red Devils they have another way back into the European big time having progressed into the Europa League final with a 2-1 aggregate victory over Celta Vigo.
It is not often that Manchester United will have pushed the Premier League to one side in order to focus on another competition, but that is likely to happen here with the club resigned to finishing outside the top three for a fourth consecutive season - the first time that has happened since 1983-84 to 1986-87.
Whether United win the Europa League or not, a big summer lies ahead and a similar league performance from Mourinho in his second campaign at the helm is unlikely to be tolerated by the club's hierarchy.
There has been particular criticism for Mourinho's negative style of football in the big games, where his teams have failed to score in seven successive away matches against current top-six opposition - a run which stretches back to Tottenham's 5-3 win over his Chelsea side on New Year's Day of 2015.
Four of those seven games have ended goalless, and United look destined to end this campaign as the lowest scorers in the top seven for a second consecutive season.
The Red Devils do, however, have the joint-best defensive record on the road this season and have picked up more points on their travels than they have in front of their own fans.
All three of their away defeats this term have come on a Sunday after a Europa League fixture, though, and with wholesale changes expected once again from Mourinho, United may once again find themselves as fodder for a stadium farewell having also been beaten by West Ham on their final appearance at Upton Park last season.
Recent form: WDDWLD
Recent form (all competitions): WWWDDL
Team News
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Spurs have no new injury concerns heading into this weekend's match, but Danny Rose is not yet ready to start despite returning to full training following a knee injury.
That will see Ben Davies continue at left-back, but Pochettino could make changes elsewhere following the defeat at West Ham, with the likes of Kieran Trippier and Mousa Dembele pushing for recalls.
Kane is expected to lead the line once again, with United one of only two clubs he has failed to score against in the Premier League.
United will still be without Marouane Fellaini as he serves the final game of his domestic ban, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ashley Young, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw and Timothy Fosu-Mensah remain sidelined until the end of the season.
Mourinho made eight changes to his side for Thursday's Europa League clash against Celta and is expected to revert to a team more similar to the one that started against Arsenal last weekend.
That could mean another league start for Axel Tuanzebe, although Mourinho could keep Eric Bailly in the starting XI after his late red card in the Europa League clash with Celta ruled him out of the final.
Tottenham possible starting lineup:
Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane
Man Utd possible starting lineup:
De Gea; Tuanzebe, Bailly, Jones, Darmian; Herrera, Carrick, Rooney; Mata, Martial, Mkhitaryan
Head To Head
It was once the case that Sir Alex Ferguson kept his pre-Tottenham teamtalk to just three words: "Lads, it's Tottenham". This fixture has been a lot more even in recent years, though, with three wins apiece and three draws in the last nine meetings.
Spurs were without a win in 26 meetings across all competitions before that, and they have lost more top-flight matches (77) and Premier League games (32) at the hands of United than against any other side.
A 3-0 win in the corresponding fixture last season saw Spurs end a 14-match winless run against United at White Hart Lane, with United now having failed to score in their last two visits to the ground. They have only failed to score in three consecutive away games against an opponent twice in their Premier League history - Everton and Chelsea.
United did win the reverse fixture at Old Trafford in December, though, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan getting the only goal of the game.
We say: Tottenham 2-0 Man Utd
Mourinho appears to have given up all hope of finishing in the top four this season and, with all of his eggs now in the Europa League basket, the coast looks clear for Tottenham to enjoy White Hart Lane's swansong. Mourinho may once again try to stifle a big team on their home patch, but this Tottenham side is bursting with attacking quality and, aside from the emotion of the stadium's farewell, Spurs will be eager to prove a point even if Chelsea are already confirmed as champions.
Barney Corkhill
