Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has insisted his side's performance is more important than the result in Sunday's north London derby, as he vowed not to abandon his ultra-attacking approach against Arsenal.
Postecoglou's side go into the game at the Emirates unbeaten and level on 13 points with their rivals, but still in the early stages of the Australian's rebuild.
"We’re five games in, I understand that for many people, they will see this as our first real test and I get that," Postecoglou said. "It is pretty easy, you could almost write two stories now: if we are successful, great we’re on the right track. If we’re not, we’ve still got a long way to go.
"For me what is going to be more important is how much of our football I see in a big game like this. How much of us can I see against a top opponent?
"That will give me the biggest indicator of where we’re at but ultimately we’ll still be six games into a new cycle, a new group of players, a very young group of players.
"Either way, irrespective of the outcome, I’d say the performance will be my biggest measure but knowing we have still got a long way to go."
Postecoglou has quickly transformed Spurs from Antonio Conte's counter-punching side to a high-octane attacking unit.
Arsenal underlined how threatening they can be against front-foot opponents with a 4-0 dismantling of PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night but Postecoglou has no plans to abandon his principles.
"There is no other reason that we play this football than to be successful, so if I didn't think we would be successful I wouldn't play it," Postecoglou said. "From my perspective, I have often said I don't set up my teams to play football that is nice to watch. I set up my team to play football that will win.
"You have to believe in that against all oppositions, in all kinds of circumstances. There are always tweaks that happen because the opposition will force you to adjust certain parts of your game, but the underlying principles of the kind of team we want to be, no I will not shy away from it now because we're facing a good team.
“We have to go out there and challenge ourselves to play the football we have so far against one of the teams that will be challenging for the title."
It is a testament to Postecoglou's impact at the club that Spurs have not yet felt the absence of record-scorer Harry Kane, who joined Bayern Munich in the summer.
But Kane is the leading scorer in north London derby history with 14 goals from 17 League appearances, and the Australian acknowledged they may "feel the void" left by the England captain this weekend.
"There’s [been] a risk of feeling that void right from the start," he said. "That’s the reality of it. It is a fairly significant figure on and off the field to be fair that left very late in the piece. But we kind of tried to, as a collective, focus on the road ahead, the kind of team we want to be.
"I’ve been really pleased with the way the lads have tackled the task of us being a real attacking threat from all areas of our game and so that people don’t see a glaring gap there.
You are still trying to replace arguably the greatest player this club has ever had.
"But you are still trying to replace arguably the greatest player this club has ever had who still was making a very, very significant contribution. The opportunity for the void to be there is there all the time but we’ve managed that well so far."
Ivan Perisic has joined Spurs' list of long-term absentees - also including Rodrigo Bentancur, Giovani Lo Celso, Bryan Gil and Ryan Sessengnon - after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in training this week.
"Yeah, disappointing - firstly for Ivan more than anything else," Postecoglou said. "One of those innocuous things that can happen sometimes.
"He got a pretty significant injury from training. Disappointed for him because, and I've only worked with him a short time, but you can see why he's played at some of the world's biggest clubs in the world and why he's maintained such a level of performance for so many years. He's the ultimate pro in the way that he trains and presents himself."
