It is just over a week since Antonio Conte said it would be a miracle if his team finished in the top four and qualified for the playoffs.
On 1 April, Spurs were three points behind the Gunners and had played one game more.
Fast forward a week and Spurs have won four in a row, including a convincing win at Villa, while the Gunners have lost back-to-back games.
Manchester United has picked up one point from a possible six since the comments by Conte, drawing with Leicester and then losing at Everton on Saturday.
Only West Ham have won since the Italian said that they were out of the race. They will be going to Brentford on Sunday.
The past week has seen Spurs fall five points adrift of the top four and they must now be considered favorites to make the top four.
They are fourth and three points clear of their north London rivals with a significantly better goal difference.
In 2020-21, Spurs played in the newly formed third-tier competition the Europa Conference League, but in the following season, they lost 2-0 in the final of the European club competition.
In November, they lost to a Slovenian side in the group, but were not allowed to play their final match because of Covid-19 cases.
In February, following a 1-0 loss at Burnley, which was Spurs' fourth defeat in five Premier League games, Conte suggested he could walk away from the club, saying: "I came here to help the club and if the problem could be the coach I'm ready
Spurs have won six of seven league games since then.
After the victory against Villa, in which Son Heung-min scored a hat-trick with Dejan Kulusevski, on loan from Juventus, also on the scoresheet, Conte said he was happy because he had a group of players who wanted to play.
We are showing we are deserving to stay in the race for a place in the playoffs.
The club deserves better than fighting for fifth, sixth or seventh and we need to continue to work with this application and intensity. I enjoy being competitive.
The late game on Saturday gave Spurs a boost, as well as the losses by Manchester United andArsenal earlier in the day.
If they end the season in that spot, United will be able to qualify for the Europa Conference League because they are seventh, below West Ham on goal difference.
The players were challenged to prove they deserved to be in the top competition by the interim manager.
The players should be eager to play international football, if possible.
We don't deserve it if we play like we did here. You have to be able to score in 95 minutes in order to qualify for Europe.
Manager Mikel Arteta admitted it had been a tough week for the club, as they haven't played in the European competition in two years.
He said that they wanted a reaction to the loss at Crystal Palace. It came in the second half, which is too late, but we have to have the courage and personality to play better and raise the level.
We were sloppy, we had no purpose to attack, we were really imprecise, and we didn't want to play forward. It has been a difficult week for us and we have lost some big players.
There are many games to be played but we have to be concerned about the performance in the first half.
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