Tottenham must 'double down' on attacking approach to beat Arsenal, insists Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou has called on his Tottenham players to "embrace" the challenge of facing rivals Arsenal on Sunday and says they must "double down" on their high-risk, attacking approach.

Spurs can put a major dent in their north London neighbours' title hopes and boost their own chances of a top-four finish with a win over Mikel Arteta's side in what is expected to be a ferocious atmosphere at White Hart Lane.

Postecoglou says his side cannot ignore the significance of the occasion and called on his players to hold their nerve and stick to their front-foot style.

"If you're at a big club and your ambition is to challenge for honours, you have to be prepared to embrace the big games and lean into them," Postecoglou said Friday. "That's the reality of it.

"You can't ignore it or put it in a space where it's not going to affect you, because it will if you don't embrace it. We want to be a club that is challenging for honours year in, year out and big games are consequences of that.

"It's just about making sure you embrace the challenge and try to tackle it in the way that got us into this position in the first place.

"From our perspective we've had some inconsistencies and challenges this year but when we've played well we've played a certain way and gone about things in a certain way.

"There's no point now when you get to the most important part of the year to shy away from that or change your approach. You've got to double down on it and focus on playing our football.

"That’s a great measure for us because otherwise you'll never know where you're short or whether you can be successful in doing it our way."

Postecoglou believes Arteta's project is a "blueprint" for any club and says Arsenal and the Spaniard deserved credit for their return to challenging at the top of the League.

"It's not a coincidence that the teams who have been up there the last two or three years are teams that have had a clear plan of what they wanted to do and stuck by it — Arsenal's a great example of that," he said.

"Mikel's done an outstanding job, it's been recognised by the club and they feel he's the man to lead them forward and they've supported him ever since then. There's a blueprint there, for sure, for every club. But it's not as simple as saying, 'We'll just stick to the same process.'

"Every club is unique, every club's different in terms of how they rebuild. But it's a credit to Arsenal, and Mikel more than anybody, that they've been really disciplined about building a side they feel can bring sustained success and they've been challenging for the last two to three to do that."

Spurs will go into the game off the derby of a 14-day break since the chastening 4-0 defeat to Newcastle on April 13.

"We’ve learned a hell of a lot from it," Postecoglou said.

"The players have learned a lot out of it, but irrespective of that it doesn't matter what you’ve done the previous game. When you’re playing such a big game — a derby — especially at this time of year when like I said there’s great meaning to the points for both clubs then what's happened previously, whether that's the immediate past or further back, becomes irrelevant."