Tottenham news: Mauricio Pochettino prepared to throw Harry Kane in at the deep end as Spurs seek derby victory

Mauricio Pochettino is preparing to hand Harry Kane an instant start at Arsenal on Sunday as Tottenham try to cope with the frustration of finding themselves trailing behind their north London neighbours yet again.

England striker Kane, the Premier League's top scorer last season with 25 goals, has been missing since being stretchered off with an ankle injury against Sunderland on September 18 and although Spurs initally coped with his absence they will arrive at the Emirates Stadium with no wins in their last six fixtures in three different competitions.

Pochettino can boast three draws and a win in his four derbies so far and Kane has an enviable record too with four goals in his last three games against the Gunners. Tottenham will also kick off as the Premier League's only unbeaten team but the statistic that matters most to their supporters is the 20-year sequence that has seen Arsenal finish above Tottenham every single season, including last term when Spurs were caught on the final day when somehow they managed to lose 5-1 at already-relegated Newcastle.

"I still feel bad about last season," said Pochettino, whose side will kick-off three points and three places adrift of the second-place Gunners. "It was so easy to be above Arsenal in that moment.

"With two games ahead and only one point required for us to be above them, that was very frustrating and disappointing. But we have another opportunity now and we will see what happens."

Arsenal are also habitual Champions League qualifiers and have already secured progress from their group in this season's competition. Tottenham, in contrast, will go into the derby on the back of a 1-0 defeat by Bayer Leverkusen at Wembley on Wednesday that has put them in danger of dropping into the Europa League, a competition with which they are more than familiar.

Pochettino admitted that Arsenal, along with Chelsea, Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs, were ahead of Tottenham in terms of profile and financial clout but the Argentinian remained hopeful their new stadium, currently in mid-construction next to their traditional White Hart Lane home, would help change that.

"Today the project is completely different to Arsenal," he said. "Sometimes it is difficult to speak about that because our fans can take it in a bad way, a negative way.

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"But I think we need to take it in a positive way. Maybe when we finish the stadium we must change the project and it will be the moment to sign a player and spend a lot of money."

Maybe but then again maybe not. Arsenal's powers waned considerably when the club was required to pay for the Emirates Stadium a decade ago as well as compete on the pitch at home and abroad.

"Sure it’s really tough," he said. "Arsene Wenger explained that it was a very tough period for Arsenal and he has more experience than me.

"We will try to work more, to do better, to be creative, to put in risk sometime in ourself instead of being safe. That is good. It shows we are a group of people, and the players, and the club is brave, that we take risks. It’s important for success in the future.

"We are brave and that is the philosophy that we have settled here. Maybe we are not brave enough still but we are in a good process."

Throwing Kane into a north London derby after so much inactivity certainly counts as brave. "In my life I always tried to be brave," he said. "Not stupid, but brave. Too much brave is not a good idea."

Pochettino also deflected Glenn Hoddle's claim that performances dipped because so many players had been handed long-term contract extensions.

"I respect all the opinions and of course Glenn Hoddle can speak and advise the players and us, he is a legend," Pochettino said. "But in my opinion there are many things that happen sometimes in football that are too difficult to explain.

"Dele Alli has maybe dropped a little bit and is not scoring in the same way that he did last season but in the last month he has been ill, he has had a cold and had problems.

"Maybe we have some injured players that we can’t rotate and maybe some players are tired. That happens sometimes in football. Mixed together, maybe we have dropped our performance."

Jan Vertonghen, Ben Davies and Erik Lamela will not feature at Arsenal because of injury and Moussa Sissoko is suspended. Mousa Dembele is a doubt with an ankle problem so Harry Winks, the 20-year-old midfielder, could be handed a first Premier League start as Pochettino did with Ryan Mason, now at Hull, at Arsenal in September 2014. "Maybe we repeat," he said. "It's a coincidence because there were different reasons but maybe he has the opportunity to play."