Marco Silva wants Fulham to repeat their League Cup victory over Tottenham Hotspur earlier this season – but knows that the Whites will have to beat at their very best to record a third home Premier League derby success for the first time in the club’s history.

The Fulham head coach was full of praise for the job that Ange Postecoglou has done since taking over at Spurs last summer, telling this afternoon’s pre-match press conference:

“A great job from Ange, no doubts about it. Big, big transformation. I’m not talking about the club because I’m not there, but the way the team plays. I can tell there is a big, big change in the way they play – the approach and the way they have been brave, the quality as well. They started so, so strong. Of course, during the season you can have some ups and downs, but they’ve been really brave. Difficult to play against, and credit to him. The players have to understand, and they understood clearly what was the idea, they bought into it for sure, and you can see that on the pitch.”

Silva is relishing the chance to go toe-to-toe with Tottenham after their excellent display at Villa Park last Sunday – and wants his charges to replicate the application and desire they showed in beating Postecoglou’s men on penalties back in August.

“It’s going to be the third time that we’re going to play against them. We lost away, we went through in the Carabao Cup against them at home. If you asked me if I would like to repeat the same performance that we had at Craven Cottage when we played against them in the Carabao Cup, I would love it because we played really well that game. We controlled them well, against a brave side and a top quality side. We were really brave as well to play in the way we wanted and to make life really difficult for them.

Of course, it’s going to be the same approach tomorrow, knowing that they are a really difficult side to play. Any time that you make a mistake, they can punish you with the threat that they have in the attack line, always with Maddison, Bissouma and Sarr, or Bentancur ready to provide for the attacking players. Different setup from the two full-backs, but full-backs that can really make a difference in the attacking line as well; because of that they can create all these problems for the opposition sides. It’s up to us to have a good and very strong approach. On the ball, I know that we are going to create problems for them.”