I think this comes more from the same mentality of if you can’t win a game don’t lose it. Similarly applied it works on if you can’t with the title or finish top 4 at least finish above Spurs/Arsenal depending on which side of good/evil you sitYeah it's an odd one. That Lee from AFTV was talking about how imperative it is to stop finishing below us and a lot of his hurt comes from how they are now behind us in various aspects. Now I hate Arsenal as much as the next person and will always hate them more than Chelsea for example despite some feeling otherwise but I think a hell of a lot more about Spurs just doing well than Spurs doing better than Arsenal. I'll be honest in that with the seasons in a row we've finished above them, it's been nice for a bit of bragging rights and such but I've never actually greatly dwelled on and revelled in the fact that we've accomplished that. Despite all that there is a part of me that respects someone who still sees the rivalry as he does and to the degree he does.
Like you say though it shows in their players as well. The great thing about the recent NLD is how much more professional we looked. They looked like the desperate, overly-emotional children on the day whilst we looked like the calm, sure of ourselves mature team that just saw it as a game we needed to win and get the job done in.