Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino claims the club must ignore north London rivals Arsenal and focus on their own ambitions.

Not since 1995 have Tottenham finished ahead of Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League, but a draw or better against Newcastle next weekend should end that run.

Arsene Wenger has had the upper hand in every year of his Arsenal reign against Tottenham’s steady stream of managers.

But Pochettino is determined not to obsess about local bragging rights and has urged all at Tottenham to think in the same way, with his priority to finish ahead of every team, not just the Gunners.

That hope ended for this season with Leicester clinching the title, but second place is there for the taking for Tottenham despite a 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Sunday.

Pochettino said: “I think that I don’t care about Arsenal, I want to win the league, I want to be on top but Arsenal I do not care about.

“Sure I want to be above them, but this I think is normal. But to try to improve, to try and be bigger, we need to concentrate on us and not look what is happening with our neighbours.

“We feel disappointed (after the result against Southampton), I think that our last game at home we want to win but we are disappointed.”

As for what his team need to improve on for next season, Pochettino said: “I think we need to put our energy in trying to win games like today.

“It does not matter if it is Southampton, Arsenal or Chelsea, we want to win, we want to be above them and now we are the same next season too.

“Two shots on target for them and they scored twice and we scored only once with 70 per cent possession but in football you never know.

“It has been a good experience for us to learn from this season. We improved from last season but we need to still improve and try to improve and try to be better.”