Eric Dier believes that Thursday night's north London derby could bring the best atmosphere yet seen at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Dier was one of those who shone in Spurs' 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Saturday but the result was not enough to keep Antonio Conte's men's top four destiny in their own hands. Arsenal's 2-1 win against 10-man Leeds the following day ensured that the Gunners will arrive on Thursday evening with a four-point cushion between fourth and fifth place and the knowledge that if they win then they will finish in the Champions League qualification spots.
Dier is excited about the upcoming derby and what the Tottenham fans will do with the noise levels inside the stadium. There will be a little extra spice because Spurs and Conte were not impressed at the original postponement of the fixture in January, with the Gunners having one reported Covid case at the time.
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While Dier laughed and would not be drawn on that subject, he did say: "It's going to be a great game. A north London derby with both teams fighting for the Champions League. I'm sure the atmosphere is going to be fantastic. It might be the best we've seen at the new stadium so I'm really excited about that and hopefully, we can give them a performance to match that.
"In our hands or not, all we can do is focus on ourselves and be prepared for the game. In the Premier League things literally change game to game. You know things change all the time. There's still so much football to be played. We have to continue in this way, focus on ourselves, prepare in the best possible way for this game and finish the season strongly."
The Spurs centre-back was a colossus in the centre of the back three at Anfield but he could not help but feel that the evening could have been even more profitable for the visitors.
"There's disappointment because of the chance we had at the end and obviously Stevie [Bergwijn] had a one-on-one as well. So I think that's where the disappointment comes from. I don't think it's as much the game as a whole but having that chance at the end, and obviously the way we conceded the goal," said Dier.
"Obviously we're working very hard and we believed. Maybe it's the first time in a while. Obviously saying it is one thing but the way we felt before the game and the way we played [proved it]. This time we came here and we believed we could win. We're working well and we're working hard.
"We're improving a lot and I think even today we could have, in certain situations, caused them more problems if we were better in possession. We knew how we could and should hurt them and if we had done that a few more times I think we could have hurt them more."
Dier has plenty of belief in the path Tottenham are taking under Conte and what the club can achieve next season under the Italian.
"Yeah [we're heading in the right direction], obviously I think it's game-by-game," he said. "We need to show consistency in our performances and finish the season in the best way possible to give us that feeling over the summer and that confidence going into the new season. I think we're improving every game but I think we can do a lot better."
