Jose Mourinho has turned the heat on Sunday's North London derby up to a steady simmer.
The Tottenham manager aimed a cheeky dig at Arsenal ahead of this weekend's renewal of hostilities at the Emirates.
In an effort to avoid both Arsenal and Tottenham playing home Europa League games on the same night, UEFA switched Spurs' home and away legs with Dinamo Zagreb.
Instead of a trip to Croatia and back before the derby, Mourinho's charges will remain in London while the Gunners must return from Greece before tackling Spurs.
Mourinho was asked if the switch of venues worked in his side's favour, "Well on December 6th we played against Arsenal in our stadium," he replied.
"On December 3rd Arsenal played at home against Rapid Vienna. At the same time we were playing in the ice in Linz against LASK Linz. We landed in London 3am.
"Was that an advantage to Arsenal?"
Well, Tottenham won that game 2-0 courtesy of first-half goals from Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane.
Mourinho concedes there will be changes to his side for Thursday night's game with Dinamo Zagreb, but would prefer to keep them to a minimum.
Momentum is key for the Spurs boss, whose side has won each of their last four games, scoring 13 goals in the process and conceding just once.
Five of those goals have come from a rejuvenated Gareth Bale, and Mourinho is keen to keep that form going.
"I want the momentum to keep going but we have to manage him," he said,
"The communication is very good, I believe he trusts me. I trust his experience and judgement and his knowledge of his body and at the moment we're deciding together what to do.
"The other day during the match I found Andre Marriner the fourth official laughing at us because he found my conversation with Gareth funny during the match.
"We were looking at each other saying, 'How many more minutes? 5 minutes more or 10?' We were making the decisions together. Marriner was laughing at it.
"Gareth, the relationship is very good, he is playing well, of course I'd like him to be on the pitch for 90 minutes of every match but it's not possible."
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