Defender Claims Tottenham's Amazing Squad will Overcome Arsenal

Jan Vertonghen believes that Tottenham have enough depth in their squad to show they are a serious Champions League contenders this weekend when the side take on Arsenal.

The defender, who joined Spurs in the summer, played in his first north London derby in November but was helpless to stop the club falling to a 5-2 defeat.

Tottenham will hope that if they do not make any silly mistakes, like Emmanuel Adebayor receiving a red card early on in the first match, then they will be able to show their dominance over Arsenal come Sunday.

"It was such a pity because 11 against 11 and I think we'd have got a positive result. They are a good team capable of winning any game, but we feel strong, very confident and we have players of exceptional quality.

"We started very well, were the better team for the first 15 minutes, scored a good goal, but then the red card [for Emmanuel Adebayor] changed everything," he told the Tottenham website.

Spurs have recently been accused of being a one man team after the superb performances of Gareth Bale, but Vertonghen believes that the entire squad has helped in the club's success.

"Gareth Bale is flying now, but before that it was Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon, Mousa Dembele. Everyone has had a good season and even when one or two of us haven't had the best game, there are other players who can do it. Our squad is amazing."

While bad blood has always existed between Tottenham and Arsenal, Vertonghen claims that Sunday's match-up is more about securing third spot in the table than beating their rivals.

He explained: "We want to win this game not just because of revenge, but because we want to beat Arsenal anyway, we want to stay in the third position and to keep our good run going.

"We have 11 matches left and every game is a cup final now. We all know what happened last season. We are all determined to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League because we all believe this team is ready for it and deserve it."

ady for it and deserve it."