Spurs' 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Wednesday night kept their title hopes alive by cutting the gap to leaders Chelsea back to four points.

Tottenham can guarantee they end the season above Arsenal for the first time in 22 years -- and put an end to the "St Totteringham's Day" jibes -- if they beat their fierce rivals at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

But Pochettino stoked up the heat ahead of the north London derby by saying the days of Spurs being concerned about finishing higher than the Gunners are now behind them.

"That is no motivation, and no distraction," said the Tottenham boss.

"What happens at the end of the season, we will see. Our focus is trying to win. We are not thinking to be above Arsenal, our challenge is to reduce the gap with Chelsea and think of bigger things than only to be above Arsenal.

"One day to achieve big trophies, you must be mentally bigger. You must think about bigger dreams."

Spurs needed a late Christian Eriksen goal to sink Palace, the Dane cracking home a 30-yard drive with 12 minutes remaining.

Tottenham had previously endured a tough few days, losing the FA Cup semifinal to the Blues on Saturday before Antonio Conte's side beat Southampton 4-2 to stay in control at the top.

"I think it was a great opportunity to show we are focused on us and trying to improve our game, and to fight when we are under pressure.

"We are showing we learned a lot from last season, and that is important. It was a big challenge to improve on last season. We have improved a lot this season.

"One area key for us to improve was in the mental area and the team are showing we are ready to fight.''

Yet Spurs looked a million miles from title contenders in the first half, with Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend close to giving Palace the lead.

Pochettino made a double change at the interval, replacing both his central midfielders, Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama -- who was lucky to still be on the pitch after escaping a second yellow card for a clumsy foul on Townsend -- with Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko.

Dele Alli should have put Spurs ahead when he met Kyle Walker's cross three yards out, only to side foot his effort across goal and wide.

Christian Eriksen celebrates after scoring a goal in Tottenham's 1-0 win against Crystal Palace.

But with time running down Eriksen collected Harry Kane's pass and lashed a powerful drive inside the far post.

"I am very pleased for Christian, it was an unbelievable goal,'' added Pochettino. "We changed things at half-time and in the second half we were much better and after 90, 95 minutes I think we fully deserved the win.''

Pochettino quickly turned his attention to Sunday's north London derby against Arsenal.

"It was difficult after Saturday and today was a big challenge to win and be alive in the race for the title,'' he said.

"The challenge is to keep going. It is always better to win but it is true now it is a big derby, perhaps the last at White Hart Lane and I think it will be an exciting game.''

Palace boss Sam Allardyce felt his side, who had won six of their previous eight matches, were feeling the effects of Sunday's win at Liverpool.

"I thought in the first half we took the game to Tottenham, which is not easy, and of course the lack of recovery time from Sunday to tonight told in the end,'' he said.

"In the second half we were not able to challenge Tottenham as much as in the first half. It was a terrific effort, but the odds were against us, I knew we would tire.

"The lads gave everything, it wasn't quite good enough in the end but it was a terrific performance.''

Allardyce fears defender Mamadou Sakho will miss the rest of the season after he was carried off on a stretcher with what appeared to be knee ligament damage.