In Mauricio Pochettino’s first season it was Chelsea and Arsenal. Last season it was Manchester City and Manchester United. This season, first Manchester City and now Chelsea again.

Tottenham Hotspur know how to overturn the big teams when they come to White Hart Lane. They can reach a special level of intensity for these big games, a level which no opposition knows how to live with. It has been one of the most compelling sights in English football over the last few years, and it will leave a legacy of memories when Spurs do finally leave this version of White Hart Lane.

Jan Vertonghen knows how impressive it is to play like this. He was a Spurs player under Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood, back when the team would collapse against the big boys. Who can forget the game when Spurs were beaten 5-0 at home by Luis Suarez’s Liverpool in December 2013, the game that got Villas-Boas the sack. That would never happen now.

Late on Wednesday night, after mastering Chelsea 2-0, barely allowing Antonio Conte’s side into the game, Vertonghen said that it was one of the best White Hart Lane nights of his career, and that Spurs have now shown that they can beat anyone at home. “It is up there,” Vertonghen said of this win, compared to other big scalps. “We are building a reputation at the Lane and it feels good to beat the big teams. It’s a good sign we are progressing well.”

These big statement home wins mean that opposition fear coming to Tottenham, which was never the case before. Arsenal and Manchester United come there in the final weeks of the season and neither will look forward to it. “We sent a message last year as well when we were challenging for the title,” Vertonghen said. “Hopefully we can do it again now. They look at us in a different way in the last two years.”

The story of this season is that the big six are beating the ‘bottom 14’ teams routinely. There will be no Leicester City this year. That means that the top sides need to take points off each other to climb the table. But having steam-rollered first City and now Chelsea at the Lane, Spurs have shown that they can beat anyone. Now they are in third place, ahead of Arsenal and Manchester City. They go to the Etihad Stadium on 21 January and there is no reason that they should not win. They won 2-1 there last year and are playing better now than they were then.

“Maybe everyone thought at the start of the season the other [lower] teams would be closer, but you see a proper top six now,” Vertonghen said. “It means you have to win against your rivals, especially at home, and we’ve done that twice now, beating City as well here. It is a good feeling and we’re getting stronger and stronger.”

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Spurs are certainly in better form now than they have been since their title push collapsed in March. After wiping the floor with Southampton and Watford they controlled the game against Chelsea, barely allowing them a chance in this 2-0 win. After Dele Alli’s second goal Spurs locked down the whole match.

“We played very well, didn’t give chances away,” Vertonghen said. “I think we are stronger than we were last year. You see who came in, what they are doing for us, how strong our squad is, how strong our bench is. It’s unbelievable. Everyone is happy to play for Tottenham.”