Former Tottenham and England midfielder Jermaine Jenas believes that his old club need to secure victory in Sunday's North London Derby in order to prove their title-winning credentials.
Spurs have made an impressive start to the season and currently lead the Premier League table having not lost a game since the opening day of the campaign.
They will be looking for a fourth successive clean sheet in the league against Arsenal, who are languishing in mid-table after winning just four matches from their opening ten.
Jenas told BBC Radio 5 Live that Spurs will be not only hoping for victory, but expecting it given the gulf between the two teams at present.
"I think Spurs need to win this game if they've got aspirations of the league," he said.
"I think this is a fixture that Jose Mourinho is saying, at home, that's three points we need right there.
"Maybe away from home you'd take a point but I just feel that this particular fixture, it plays out in a way that you can't really control to an extent."
Jenas, who made 201 appearances for Spurs during a seven-and-a-half year spell at the club, believes that Arsenal's approach to the derby will be to sit deep and allow the hosts to enjoy plenty of ball possession, which could be a dangerous strategy given the quality of attackers at Mourinho's disposal.
"It [the occasion] kind of just drags you in to a way of playing, whether that's end-to-end football or whether it's a cautious approach, but the reality is if a team sits off the other team is going to have a lot of possession," he continued.
"Right now, looking at it, I think Tottenham will have the possession because I think Arsenal will be so scared of the space in behind.
"I think they could be kind of obsessive in terms of not exposing themselves defensively that it will be Spurs on the ball this week, it will be them trying to dictate play and it will be [Mikel] Arteta sitting in which, I think, is the best chance of him winning the game."
