Welcome to the Sky Sports Football Podcast brought to you by Bet365, where every now biting nil-nil, every bizarre VAR, every foregone conclusion, bad pass, slam dunk, tap-in, full-start, dead heat, and absolutely expected defeat is amazing.

From football to tennis and ice hockey to motorsport. Whatever the moment, it's never

ordinary at Bet365. Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Essential Football podcast with me, Jack Wilkinson.

It's Crunch Week in North London as a Derby Day of Season-defining proportion sees Tottenham and Arsenal jostle for a top four finish and Champions League qualification.

Seldom has a North London Derby taken on such significance.

Victory for Tottenham on Thursday will cut fourth place Arsenal's advantage to a point with two games to play,

while victory for the Gunners will confirm their place back at the top

table of European football for the first time in five seasons. You can of course watch the 191st

North London Derby live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm this Thursday,

but before all of that, my colleague Oliver you and I sought to gauge the mood in both camps

ahead of this pivotal clash. We'll bring you Ollie sit down with former Arsenal striker and Sky Sports

pundit Alan Smith in part two of this podcast. But first, I was fortunate enough to be invited

to the Tottenham training ground this week for a one-and-one with Spur's boss Antonio Conte.

When Antonio Conte took charge at Tottenham in November 2021, the club were languishing ninth

in the Premier League and securing Champions League football was a distant, seemingly unattainable

dream.

Fast forward six months and what was once improbable could become a reality for Spurs.

But there is also a risk that that dream could turn into a nightmare if that most coveted prize of Champions League qualification is surrendered to Arsenal, their arch

rivals, in their own backyard. It is that prospect which contain these players are striving

to avoid, as he explained to me on Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview, it started with his

reaction to Juergen Klott's comments in the wake of Tottenham's hardfall and deserved

it won all draw at Liverpool last weekend.

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