Jan Vertonghen is a steely competitor, but there is one challenge he has been avoiding for 19 years: facing Mousa Dembele over a chess board. Although the Tottenham team-mates share a passion for chess, dating back to their academy days, they have never dared discover who is the more accomplished player.

“We both love chess and we’ve known each other since 12,” says Vertonghen. “But we’ve never played because we hate losing against each other that much. We play every game together — apart from chess. The fear of losing is too big. I think I’d win, but he thinks the same. We both don’t want to risk it.”

Vertonghen estimates that he, Dembele and Belgium team-mate Thomas Vermaelen spent nearly 100 hours playing backgammon at this summer’s World Cup, so why such caution when it comes to chess?

“It’s a game without excuses, so for a footballer it’s very hard to play,” says Vertonghen. “If we play each other and I win, you’re stupid. That’s how we think, especially me and Mousa. We play online against people we don’t know. If Eric Dier beats me, he can call me stupid until I beat him. When it’s brains versus brains, there’s no saying, ‘Your bishop got lucky there’. Eric beat me the last time — he’s a bright guy — but I think overall I’m up.”

As he talks, Vertonghen is perched on a tiny plastic chair in the children’s playroom on Rainbow Ward, North Middlesex Hospital, where he has been handing out Christmas presents. He seems comfortable here, perhaps because he is surrounded by board games, one of his passions. In spite of the high stakes, they have played a surprising role in strengthening one of the Premier League’s most united squads.

“I love the environment at Spurs,” says the defender. “This group sees each other off the pitch so much. Coffees or just hanging out, because we like each other. We love playing games. I’m addicted — not video games, but board games. And we have quite a good bunch like that. Uno is for the training ground. Settlers of Catan was more when Nacer Chadli was around — that’s a demanding game.”

Liking one another might be one of the simpler secrets to Tottenham’s increasingly impressive season, which is gathering pace ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Burnley. Who needs new signings or a home stadium when you have such formidable team spirit?

Spurs have more Premier League points than ever before after 16 games, despite playing 10 away from home and the other six at Wembley, and this week’s 1-1 draw at Barcelona booked their place in the Champions League last 16. They have not even enjoyed their annual Festive burst.

"I refuse to play Mousa at chess because I just can't stand the thought of being beaten and called an idiot!"

“It was special,” says Vertonghen, looking back on Tuesday night in the Nou Camp. “But it’s passing the group stage, it’s not winning a trophy.” The club’s lack of silverware under Mauricio Pochettino is the only remaining caveat to the manager’s remarkable work, and a trophy has also evaded Vertonghen since he arrived from Ajax in 2013.

After a League Cup Final, consecutive FA Cup semi-final defeats and two spirited, yet unsuccessful, title challenges, the centre-back, who says he is open to extending his contract beyond 2020, is acutely aware that Spurs are in danger of being remembered as nearly-men.

“This group of players deserve something together,” he says. “It would be a shame not to win something. We need to reward ourselves for all the work, for all the talent that we have. We’ve reached an unbelievable level. Take the best Barca side, I don’t think we’re far from that. We’re still in every tournament and that’s how you spread the odds of winning something. We’re going to be very close this season.”

There are few better examples of Pochettino’s Midas touch than his work with Vertonghen. In his book, the Argentine revealed they did not initially see eye-to-eye when he joined Spurs in 2014. Vertonghen admits he was angry after an injury-hit season, but says Pochettino soon won him around.

“I had an opinion and he definitely had his — he’s the boss,” says Vertonghen. “It didn’t take us a very long time to get along and for me to understand what it meant to play as a centre-back in his side. It demanded a lot, especially physically and he made me understand that. He made it clear I wasn’t doing enough. He was right.”

Under Pochettino, Vertonghen has become of the one finest centre-backs in Europe and the Belgian will be as important as anyone in Spurs’ attempts to end their decade-long wait for silverware. Over the chess board, though, there are still improvements to be made.

“It’s easy to reach a certain level with chess, but it’s very hard to reach the next level,” says Vertonghen, who watched Magnus Carlsen retain his world title last month. “Eric, Mousa and I, I don’t think the three of us are at the next level. We know some opening moves. We can think one or two steps ahead. But not 27, like Carlsen.”

Jan Vertonghen and players from Tottenham Hotspur visited the children’s ward at North Middlesex Hospital to hand out presents.