Ex Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino can't use the excuse of tiredness after a game in Europe if his side fail to perform against his ex club at White Hart Lane on Sunday.
Pochettino showed that his focus is till not anything other than the league on Thursday night when he made 10 changes from the side that he had put out at the weekend against Arsenal, gambling with Spurs hopes of progression in a tournament that could have a Champions League place at the end of it, and he would have gotten away with it as well if it hadn't been for that meddling Demba Ba whose last minute penalty rescued a point for the Turkish side and left the North London Soccer Chickens floudering in 3rd place in the group, knowing that if they lose against leaders Asteras Tripolis in their next match they run the risk of being cast adrift.
But in using effectively a reserve side, Pochettino now has no excuse should his side fail to beat Saints. he cannot claim that they Europa League has disrupted his preparations as very few of the side on duty last night are likely to start against Saints, so Spurs should be fresh and ready to go.
But Pochettino's main problem after last night will be the fact he is not building a squad used to winning ways, Ronald Koeman has seen the benefit of building confidence in his side and keeping the foundation of it intact most games so that winning mentality is bred into all of his squad.
Pochettino however has a squad that is not in winning ways and if he is not careful he will find, as plenty of other Spurs managers have, that this could create a very hard atmosphere for his team to play in and this in turn brings the morale down even more.
So Saints go to the Lane full of confidence where Spurs players go with aprehension, they are disjointed and know that if Saints go 2-0 up as they did last year under ironically Pochettino that the crowd will turn on them and the manager, unlike last year however Saints are a different prospect these days so turning that deficit around won't be so easy for Spurs and their manager who is still awaiting his first ever comeback to win in the Premier League after going a goal down.