Mauricio Pochettino believes his side now have the mental strength to secure their first victory against Arsenal at the Emirates in eight years.
Tottenham haven't won on enemy territory in the North London derby since 2010 but come into Sunday's fixture under a surge of momentum having won six games in succession including recent victories over Chelsea and Inter Milan.
And Pochettino is adamant that his side can now end their curse at the home of their bitter rivals as he clashes with old friend Unai Emery for the first time in England.
“I think the mentality so far is so good,” Pochettino said. “I think now it is about delivering the job. We have the belief which is most important in football.
“The belief and faith that you can beat any team away from home or at home and I think today the squad have that belief and that is most important.
“It’s special, a special game. Always it’s tough to play this kind of game because it means more than other games. We know very well what this game means for our fans.
“Of course the players feel that. The players are aware of what the game means. We have a lot of players who through the academy arrive in the first team. They know very well what it means to play Arsenal.”
Tottenham are beleaguered by injury concerns ahead of the derby with nine fixtures over the course of 30 days. Christian Eriksen, who scored the crucial winner against Inter in midweek, was only able to appear from the bench due to fitness concerns while Keiran Trippier is still nagged by a groin injury.
But Pochettino was quick to insist that he wouldn’t be forced into rushing any players back into contention, even for a fixture of such magnitude.
“We are assessing them, maybe yes, maybe no. If we feel the player is going to take some risks then of course we are going to rest.
“It is not important the name. If we believe we need to rest some players we are going to rest, we are not going to take a risk.
“We are going to put in a player that we believe can cope with 90 minutes of effort.
“We know you cannot 100 per cent avoid the risk on the player but we need to be sure the players that are going to play are ready to compete.”
