LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino has said Tottenham Hotspur's miserable record at Chelsea is an added motivation ahead of Saturday's match at Stamford Bridge but warned the Blues are currently the best team in Europe.
Spurs have not won at Stamford Bridge in the league for 26 years, since Gary Lineker's winner in 1990, and last season they blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 in the heated "Battle of the Bridge," which confirmed Leicester City as champions.
Spurs have won once in nine matches in all competitions, and crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday. Chelsea, by contrast, have won six on the bounce in the league, scoring 15 goals without reply.
Reminded of Spurs' record at Chelsea, Pochettino told a news conference: "It must be a motivation for us, it must be a very good challenge. It's a big motivation for me personally and must be for the players too.
"It's a good challenge for us to go and play them at the moment. They are in very good form. They have a great manager that I know very well and they have great players too. It's an advantage not being involved in European competition or the cups now. They have time to train and develop their philosophy. They are, not only in England but in Europe, the team most in form today."
Spurs received nine yellow cards -- a Premier League record -- in last season's draw, while Mousa Dembele was hit with a six-match retrospective ban by the Football Association (FA) for appearing to eye-gouge Diego Costa.
Pochettino has since said his players "crossed a line" on May 2 but he said Saturday would not be a repeat.
"That's in the past. From our side, all is forgotten," he said. "That was a completely different period last season, for different reasons. We arrived in a moment that was difficult to manage -- the emotion, that was normal, we are human.
"The start to the game -- 2-0 to us, the first 45 minutes -- was perfect. They came back, got two goals we lost a little bit our heads, that's normal in football. All is different, we need to go there and believe we can win. They are in very good form. We need to try to play better than them, to try to win the game."
The animosity between Spurs and Chelsea runs deep and a report this week suggested that Spurs are the only club objecting to Steve Holland's possible dual-role as Chelsea and England assistant manager.
Pochettino, however, set the record straight, and said he has no issues with the likely appointment of Holland as the assistant to Gareth Southgate, who is expected to be named permanent England boss.
"No, after Gareth Southgate got the job in the national team, we had some meetings with Steve Holland and we talked a lot about what happened last season," Pochettino said.
"After that, we created a very good relationship. It's not important for me and Tottenham. It's more a decision of the FA. But I don't know where that news started. I can say to you we have a very good relationship in that. We have some friends -- him with some staff from Tottenham. Nothing to say about that, it's all about his decision and the FA's. All decisions the FA take are good for us."
Pochettino will be without the suspended Danny Rose at Chelsea, while Ben Davies is injured but the manager said Jan Vertonghen, Kieran Trippier or Kevin Wimmer could play at left-back.
Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela are also sidelined but Pochettino hopes the Belgian will resume full training on Friday, and said he could be fit to face Swansea on Dec. 3.
The Spurs manager also revealed that Harry Winks could start a third game in a week after the 20-year-old impressed against West Ham and Monaco.