There’s something quite fascinating about the way in which a football derby brings out the most tribalistic side of a football fan, regardless of the circumstances in which the game is played.

A League Cup quarter-final between Arsenal and Tottenham is no different.

It causes grown men to hurl abuse at a ball boy for simply doing his job. It seems to give people the excuse to launch a tirade of expletives towards people who, under any other circumstance, would be considered friends.

The last time the two sides met, it led to a Spurs fan throwing a banana at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, claiming it wasn’t a racist incident. He was still hit with a lifetime ban from the club.

On Wednesday night, 17 days after the banana throw, it saw an Arsenal supporter launch a plastic bottle at Dele Alli’s head, an incident the police are now investigating.

“I saw it and it was lucky that it wasn’t a big issue,” said Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino. “We play a derby and we hate each other in a good way but it is in a bad way when you go to damage some people or an opponent. 

“It is only one stupid person who made a mistake. I respect the Arsenal fans. For one [fan], you cannot talk about everyone.

“I hope that Arsenal take responsibility and, through the cameras, they can identify [who it was] because it wasn’t a problem but it could have been a big problem, some big issue and how are we going to fix it?”

If either team were playing a side from anywhere but London, the League Cup quarter-final would be seen as an afterthought, a chance to play the kids or players in need of match fitness ahead of the festive period.

But both Arsenal manager Unai Emery and Tottenham’s Pochettino knew that supporters would be furious with anything other than the best XI available.

Regardless, both sides left out big names with a clear eye on the jam-packed festive schedule and while neither would admit it, it allows for the excuse, should they lose, that this game wasn’t that important.

It’s what the fans would have said yesterday, today and the next few weeks, that the League Cup is a worthless competition.

However, for both managers, it is seen as the perfect opportunity to bring their first piece of silverware in their tenure.

Unfortunately for Emery, his chance ended as the Gunners succumbed to a 0-2 defeat courtesy of goals from Heung Ming Son and Dele either side of half-time.

But every derby is a lesson, a chance to test yourselves in the most volatile of atmospheres and even though the stakes aren’t as high as they were in the Premier League, try telling that to the tens of thousands of fans on an anger-fuelled adrenaline rush.