The Sky Blues and Wanderers lock horns at ANZ Stadium on Saturday with Arnold stating the stadium belonged to Sydney FC due of the amount of exhibition games his side has played at the ground.

He proceeded to suggest his squad were experienced enough to resist intimidation on the night.

The Wanderers have not beaten Sydney since their 1-0 victory dating back to January 2014.

Since then they have managed just two draws and five losses.

Popovic said he was keen to break the hoodoo adding all the focus was on his team.

“He (Arnold) can speak about his side, I don’t think he knows too much about our side and he’s alluding to something he doesn’t know much about,” Popovic said.

“We’re a little bit different, we have no interest in them and their experience or lack of experience, we’re ready for this game and that’s all that matters for us.

“There’s a high expectation at this club, we embrace that, there’s a high expectation tomorrow and we expect to win.

“We haven’t done that in Round One, we haven’t done that against Sydney FC in a little while, but it doesn’t change our belief and confidence in the playing group, we’ll go into tomorrow certainly ready.”

Western Sydney boast a clean bill of health with just Josh Sotiro who is out with a knee injury and captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley unavailable due to a suspension picked up in their 4-1 FFA Cup loss to Melbourne City.

The Wanderers completed their final training session Friday but Popovic refused to reveal any information regarding the starting XI.

Argentinian Nicolas Martinez, Japanese Jumpei Kusukami and Urugayan Bruno Pintares are all strongly favoured to debut.

The crowd is tipped to exceed 60,000 and the mentor expects his troops to react accordingly.

“They’ll have butterflies and if they don’t, they’re not human. You’re walking out to a huge crowd, they should embrace what they feel and know that when the game starts, they’re very well prepared to put on a good show,” he said.

“It’s special, I don’t know if I’ll have time to reflect just before kick-off, but I’ll certainly be very proud when I walk out there and I see all the people supporting this great game.

“When you see 50-60,0000 Wanderers fans in the stands, you realise how special this club is and how special the region is for football.”

Popovic admitted the development of Western Sydney came sooner than he expected. 

“We always envisaged this happening, maybe not so soon, but when you do a trial game. When you start and have five players sign and 4000 people show up, you know that this is possible,” Popovic said.

“Just like the new stadium being built, it’s possible, new training ground being built, it’s possible and maybe a little bit earlier than expected, but as I said it’s a special club and I’m very proud to be head coach.”