Ivan Perisic is now out for a long time, how disappointing was that bad injury?

Yeah, disappointing - firstly for Ivan more than anything else. 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.

And it's disappointing for us because he's been a really important part of what we've done so far. We don't have a great experience in the group and he's one that does have that level head and he's been pretty significant in our games so far and in big moments. So like I said, disappointed for him and disappointed for us in terms of what we're trying to build. He's very strong willed and I've got no doubt he'll come back for club and country and get back to the levels he showed before he got injured.

Have you bumped into Spurs and Arsenal fans walking around who talk about the derby?

Fair to say people have given me an indication about how they feel about this game and that's great. I've been involved in derbies, one very significant one and you understand what it means to supporters for both clubs and the significance in terms of the general mood around the place. All these things add significance to the future and on top of that they are also a very, very good football side. They had an outstanding season last season, they've strengthened this year and they're a group that for the most part has grown together and you can see that there's a real belief within them. Playing at their place will be a hell of a challenge for us.

You make sure that young boy could ask a question at the fans' forum and it got plenty social media attention, what do you make of the positive reaction to you from fans of other clubs and are you enjoying the job?

I've enjoyed it because I enjoy what I do. I'm just trying to be who I have been my whole life & with the forum it was just a young man dying to ask a question. That's why we were there and I didn't think one extra question would be significant to anyone else but that young man. I felt right to do it, I did it. That's fine. There's a famous college coach who said 'never be proud about doing the right thing, just do it'.

So there's always life lessons for all of us, no matter how old we are, about how we conduct ourselves, so I've enjoyed it so far. It's been a great challenge. Many challenges to come. I've got a group of coaches I talk to on a regular basis from other codes and a couple are going through difficult periods. We all decided that as a coach you're either going through a difficult period or it's coming up. That's your constant way of being but I enjoy it.

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It will be the first north London derby for some players, how will that experience affect them?

You're right, we're going to have a quite a few who aren't going to have played in this fixture and away from home. It's not just that it's a derby and away from home, it's the challenge of overcoming a really strong opponent away from home. Irrespective [of the rivalry], Arsenal are a very, very good side. Again, with these things, it's the experience that makes you grow.

I've always felt with these kinds of fixtures, you allow the players to go out there and hopefully try to get them to express themselves in the best possible way and not put too many restrictions around them or try to guide them too much on what to expect or how they should react to it. It's much better they go through the experience & they can reflect on it than you offer advice.

From our perspective, we've tried to create an environment where we train really hard every day, preparing for a really difficult game at the end of the week. And hopefully that constant day-to-day conditioning of the boys, their physical being, their mental being, means every week they feel like it's a big game. So when they do get into a game of more significance from a public perspective like this one, it hopefully doesn't change them too much.

Is this derby particularly important for Spurs fans after two losses last season?

Again, I guess the supporters, irrespective of your past record, always see the next derby as the one they want to win - and that doesn't change. From our perspective, it's a great challenge for us as a football team that's beginning on a journey and trying to have an identity on the way we play. There's no greater test than playing one of the top teams in the comp away from home, who also happens to be your biggest rival. It's a great test for us, a great challenge for us. We've got to go out there and see how we cope with all of that.

Do your team have an advantage in the recovery time with a full week to work?

I don't know how them playing in Champions League and us not playing in the Champions League because we weren't good enough last season gives us an advantage. I think the advantage is usually with the team in the Champions League because they've earned the right to be there. So no, I don't think it gives us any advantage whatsoever. In many respects, that's the space we want to be in. We'd much preferred to have had a Champions League game this week as preparation for a derby, rather than not have a game. As with all these things, you go into games and adjust your preparation. I'm sure Mikel has, and we'll adjust to the fact we didn't have a top-level game this week to prepare for this one.

Spurs have not won at Arsenal in 13 years but a lot of this squad don't have that baggage?

Again, it really depends on how do you frame that? Ultimately the challenge is they are a very good football team and I can't get away from that. They are a very good football team, so irrespective of past records. If we had of beaten them twice last year, I would be going into this game saying it will be a tough game and it will be a tough game for our players, particularly away from home. That is the challenge for us. I have never put too much stock on previous records, previous history because I certainly wasn't involved in any of those and some of the players weren't involved, so there is no point us reflecting on the historical context of the fixture. What is really more relevant is they are in good form, we're in good form and we want to go out there and try to play our football against them.

You've been playing front-foot football, can you play that at Arsenal?

Well, 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. 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.

Much has been made this week about the goalkeeper situation at Arsenal, how difficult is that as a coach when you have two goalkeepers who seem themselves as the number one?

I think the most difficult is when you don't have a number one. That's when you're really struggling. I reckon having two number ones, I don't think any managers would say no to that. I think they're in a good position.

How important is the psychology for this fixture and have you been trying to tap into that?

No, again, you don't play down significance of the game because even if I try to, there's enough noise around it, the players don't live in bubbles and they know it's a big game and the significance of it.

We train every day. There is going to be a preparation for us to play our best game of the year this weekend, then after that there will be preparation to play our best game of the year the following weekend.

That has to be the mentality and that is something I've tried to instil into every group I've had, that train to be the best you can be every single day. It means you are preparing yourself for your best game of the season this coming weekend.

People say you treat it like any other game. Yes you do because every game we want to win and we have to be at our best, particularly in the Premier League. The noise around it and the significance around it is something that we have to embrace and absorb, but I will not be happy if we are more up for this game than other games because that's not going to get us to where we want to go.

You mentioned before about speaking to coaches from others codes, can you expand on that?

I'm the kind of guy that is pretty curious and we have a little group where we get together once a month. Nothing significant, just a safe space for us to whine and moan about our existence. Everyone feels good about it at the end, it's a bit of therapy. It's all good.

Is Lo Celso available?

No. Apart from Ivan, everyone from last week is in a good space. In terms of the longer term ones, we've still got two or three weeks away Bryan Gil, Lo Celso, Bentancur, those kind of guys. Hopefully over the next few weeks they will slowly get involved in training.

There's been so much change at the club, not just you and on the pitch matters, but off the pitch with Scott Munn officially starting this week, a new director of football incoming, Leonardo Gabbanini leaving, what's it like to be in the middle of so much change all at once?

Normal for me. Wherever I have gone and I think that is the club understanding, I've constantly said that if you want to change, you need to change. All these things happen, sometimes not sequential or all at the same time, but over the course of time you find we are heading off in new direction and some of people make their own decisions about whether they're involved in that and other times we look for, or the club look to bring new people in.

That's the kind of position we're in as a club. As I said, it wasn't going to take one window for us to build the squad we wanted and it wasn't going to take a couple of months to have the structure we wanted. It will evolve over the next 12 months, couple of years I think you'll find, and we will have a constant evolution of people and the way we play, the way we train and the environment itself.

All these kind of things are a natural consequence of the club deciding to change direction from last year.

Judging on the U21s game, Alejo Veliz looks like he will fit your system - how has he been in training so far and will we see him sooner than your initial prediction of the second half of the season?

To be fair to him he's only had one week of training, had two sessions last week. We gave him game time for the U21s and now he's had a full week of training. It's great to have him on board but again no expectations around his contribution.

Obviously being in the attacking third I think he will get some opportunities for some game time but we still need to let him settle and get him involved in training more consistently over the next two or three weeks and get him a game or two more for U21s, because he's missed a lot of football, but we've been really encouraged with the way he's has gone about things and adjusted to life here. He's only a young man coming from the other side of the world. The dressing room environment is great and watching him other night, he is showing the attributes, he has got great movement and he is a real number nine in terms of how he attacks the box and really looking forward to getting him up to speed.

There's another major match for you this weekend with Carlton playing in their big game tomorrow – will you be getting up early to watch it?

Absolutely mate. Go the Blues! We’ve had a great year and we’ve had a long time without success. Good luck to the Blues, Michael Voss, Crippsy and the boys..... No one know what I was talking about there!

Aussie Rules?

Yeah, yeah, thanks mate.

You've done well in moving on from Kane but he's the all-time top scorer in north London derbies, is there a risk of feeling that void a bit more?

There’s a risk of feeling that void right from the start. 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. 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.

Do you feel you have personalities to step up or are they still learning that?

We’ll learn that. We’re five games in. I understand that for many people, they will see this as our first real test and I get that. 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.