Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham players are suffering from a busy schedule after drawing 0-0 with Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Spurs are now in 10th position -- four points off the Premier League top four -- and although Pochettino admitted his side were not at their best against the Eagles, he feels they are being hampered by a harsh buildup of fixtures.
"It wasn't an easy game," he conceded. "We didn't show the freshness we had against Everton. I'm not happy with our performance and I think the draw is fair.
"Maybe it is because we have played four games in nine days or three games in six days -- maybe this was the problem."
Pochettino pointed to the extra time between fixtures for their rivals in recent games but refused to hide behind the fixture pile-up.
"It is not easy when you play against Chelsea when they have one day more for recovery, he added. "Then today when we play Palace and we have two days for recovery and they have three days.
"It [need for recovery time] is a little advantage for the opponent -- we had a lack of freshness. It is massive but it is not an excuse.
"One day more is massive for the players but this is a tough competition and we need to understand that sometimes the schedule is not good for us and in the future it might not be good for another team. This we accept but I'm still disappointed."
Information from the Press Association was used in this report.