The intensity and passion was special, ferocious even, and it put some players in a different state of mind - it affects players and referee's decisions.
As a youngster, it's easy to get caught up in it and go flying into tackles. That's when you need the experienced ones - like Mikel Arteta, who has played in the Merseyside derby - to harness the aggression.
It was inevitable with the mass arrival of foreign players that some of the on-field intensity would disappear, at least for a time.
I was from the north of England and had to have exactly what the derby meant laid out to me by the local boys - they pinned me up against the dressing-room wall at White Hart Lane to make their point - so players from abroad will be even less aware.
Now that it's neck and neck over who will finish higher in the Premier League, that helps bring back an on-field edge.
The fragility in the Arsenal team makes me feel more nervous about the derby than I have done for years. How will they start? How will they deal with set pieces?
If I was a Tottenham forward, I would relish the chance to get at that Arsenal defence and nobody will be relishing it more than Adebayor. He is the type of character who will want to get one over his old team and that adds another edge to the game.
He has always been at his best when he arrives at a club, when everything's fresh and new - he's loved by everyone and there's no baggage around. He has started well, at times he is unplayable with his pace and awkwardness and he will be flying tonight.
In the past, I get the impression people have been scared to stand up to him. He's a big character and can be overly dominant in a dressing room, but Harry Redknapp is the right man to handle him.
He will not shy from confrontation, or putting an arm around the shoulders.
Per Mertesacker will need to keep a cool head against Adebayor and he certainly has the know-how to do so having played in plenty of derby games in Germany and with all those international caps to his name as well. But he needs to translate that into a calming influence on the pitch in the Premier League.
In a way, the experienced players need to rise above their own performance - they have to keep guiding and advising their team-mates no matter how well or badly they are playing. If you're having a shocker you can't retreat into yourself.
The major problem with Arsenal is that I cannot see them holding their opponents at bay for 90 minutes. They have improved since the new players arrived but only in fits and starts. I am yet to be convinced they have the squad to push on for fourth.
The Blackburn performance was a huge pointer that something is still wrong. They have to work out what they do when they don't have the ball. That's an ethos in the team that has to change.
Tottenham look better equipped and you would expect Harry to have another go in the market after Christmas.
Can Arsenal keep pace with them? Everything can change over the course of the season, but from what I see they look frail at times and the Premier League - or the Champions League - is no place for frailty.
MEANWHILE, ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger has insisted that his captain Robin van Persie would not be the latest Arsenal player to join Manchester City. Van Persie, who has less than two years left on his Arsenal contract, is a very attractive proposition to City given the likely departure of Carlos Tevez in January.
Since summer 2009, Arsenal have sold Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri to City. Although Arsenal fought harder for some than for others, Van Persie, their captain and leader in attack, is one they are desperate to keep.
Wenger insisted his captain was staying put. "This is a story created to create a story. There is no truth in it."
Asked if a bid from City might come as early as January, Wenger questioned City's need for a new forward, given those they have loaned out elsewhere. "Why should we sell players in January?" he asked.
"Man City already have problems because they have too many strikers, they pay half of the League for them to play away somewhere. Why should they want to buy strikers? It's very difficult to understand."
One of Manchester City's on-loan strikers is Adebayor, who will face his former club in the white of Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow afternoon. Despite the controversy between Adebayor and Arsenal, based around one particularly contentious match in September 2009, Wenger was keen to praise his former player.
"He is a great player," said the man who signed Adebayor from Monaco in 2006. "He is not a difficult guy to manage. He was not one you remember to be especially difficult."
Wenger joined Arsenal 15 years ago, and said yesterday that it took him only "two days" to realise how important the North London derby was, "because when you see Pat Rice, you realise the game is important. You see that people are becoming a bit more nervous when the derby comes."
The Independent
