There are plenty that have been unyieldingly willing to dismiss Tottenham Hotspur this season.

The club’s wonderful patent for turning around games and notching winners late on away from home has been attributed to luck by a lot, while the consistently sparkling form of various players have been branded as elongated purple patches. But to write off this team’s merits would not only be naive and misguided, but scathingly harsh too.

Mauricio Pochettino has fashioned a side that is balanced, brash and ready to surge into the top four with a win over their fierce North London rivals Arsenal this weekend. And the potential momentum accrued from a win over their bitterest opponents could give them a timely bounce heading into the second half of the season.

The ruthless finishing of Harry Kane and the purring intricacy of Christian Eriksen—more on them later—have been guiding lights in this Tottenham team, but the bulk of the credit must go to the manager. Pochettino is notorious in his desire to construct a team that’s physically a match for anyone and with that in mind, it’s little surprise that Spurs seem to be bristling with vim late in games while opponents toil.

“Sometimes you want to kill him because he makes you suffer like a dog”, famously said Dani Osvaldo after working with the Argentine at Espanyol. “But you get the results”. It’s a narrative that’s difficult to contest at this juncture, but one that the players didn’t look wholly unified behind earlier in the campaign. Now, as they head into this clash with Arsenal with a spring in their step, the manager’s principles are embedded and beginning to yield excellent results.

They’re principles that have frantically expedited the rise of certain individuals too, the development of Kane perhaps being the most astounding. The young striker may not be aesthetically comparable to a lot of elite forwards or have the physicality to match the league’s very best, but he’s industrious, wholesome and understatedly intelligent in his play; almost like a Thomas Muller-lite.

After racking up the goals earlier in the season in the Europa League, a lack of these technical flourishes rendered Kane as a mere flash in the pan in the eyes of many. But 20 goals in all competitions later, he’s carried that form into the Premier League, giving Tottenham an irrepressible outlet with a forensically clinical eye for goal.

The man that’s been provider for Kane in the main is Eriksen. The Dane is the undisputed crown jewel of the phalanx of new faces that came to White Hart Lane following the sale of Gareth Bale, and while in his debut season there was an endearing flamboyance about his game, in his second the former Ajax man has totted up the numbers—11 goals and one assist—to add some clout to these glittering displays.

At the back too, Pochettino has one of the game’s most underrated goalkeeper. While the Spurs back four haven’t been accommodating to opponents by any means—Jan Vertonghen and Federico Fazio have been superb at the heart of the back four—when they’ve been breached, Hugo Lloris typically keeps their net intact.

Indeed, for all the fuss regarding the exploits of David De Gea and Thibaut Courtois this campaign, the Frenchman is arguably the finest stopper in the division. Pochettino’s recent revelation that the former Lyon man is happy to stay at White Hart Lane for a long time yet represents another timely boost to this group.

This is a team that’s settled into an incisive groove in recent weeks and has a plethora of intriguing challenges to come in the second half of the season. Eriksen’s superb double salvo against Sheffield United booked their place in the final of the League Cup and going up against Chelsea—a team that they emphatically beat 5-3 not too long ago—they’ll be bursting with a belief that they can triumph under the Wembley arch.

Silverware would be a fine achievement for Pochettino in his maiden year as boss, but you suspect the White Hart Lane faithful will be hoping for a top four finish too, maybe even at the expense League Cup glory. After all, at the moment it’s an aim that looks well within the capabilities of this burgeoning side.

They will have some obstacles to overcome in the final knockings of the campaign, though. The punishing practices put into place by Pochettino could catch up with this side physically—especially with Europa League fixtures to negotiate too—just as it did with Southampton last season as after their own blistering start.

The club’s abstinence from investing in the January window also yields some concerns. Kane’s supreme improvements have filled a void in the centre-forward position for Spurs, but if he was to get injured, could the confidence-shot Roberto Soldado or the temperamental talents of Emmanuel Adebayor be trusted to do a job in his absence? One suspects not, certainly not of a distinction in anyway comparable to the 21-year-old.

But at the moment, this team is jammed with endeavor, class and a festering belief that they can achieve great things in months to come. It’s not something that many seem to have cottoned onto in the soccer stratosphere quite yet, but you a suspect a cornerstone performance against their local and positional rivals would help shift those perceptions.

Programming note: For viewers in the United States, the North London derby will be shown live at 7:45am ET/4:45am PT on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra.

Follow Matt on Twitter @MattJFootball