LONDON -- Chelsea's lack of European football gives them a major advantage over Tottenham in Saturday's Premier League grudge match, according to Mauricio Pochettino.
Spurs arrived back in London in the early hours of Wednesday morning after Tuesday night's wretched 2-1 Champions League defeat to AS Monaco, while league leaders Chelsea, who are not involved in Europe, have not played since beating Middlesbrough on Sunday.
Leicester played 43 games in total last season and won the Premier League, while Liverpool's unexpected title challenge in 2013-14 also came without European football, and Pochettino believes it is indisputably an advantage.
"I think it's obvious and nobody can be disappointed or upset with that idea," the Spurs manager said.
"If you are a big team like Chelsea and you are not involved in European competition or cups, you have one week to prepare for a game, in this case against Tottenham. And we were playing on Tuesday in Monaco and arrived [home] late, so you cannot have a proper week to prepare. It is normal that it is an advantage for the opponent."
Pochettino, however, insisted he was not making excuses ahead of the match at Stamford Bridge, where Spurs have not won in 26 years.
"But I think Saturday it is not an excuse for who wins and loses -- we need to be ready because that is the competition. We fight to be involved in the Champions League or the Europa League.
"It is not an excuse but always you have an advantage if you are ready after you finish the game on Saturday or Sunday -- like Chelsea played Middlesbrough -- you are focussing on the game against Tottenham. To plan it, playing in Monaco like us or another team playing in the Europa League."
Pochettino again has selection concerns ahead of the match with Toby Alderweireld, Erik Lamela and Ben Davies injured, and Danny Rose suspended.
But he backtracked on his claim in Monaco that Tottenham need to "add more quality", saying: "Maybe after the game, for different headlines, different comments, I talked about enough quality.
"We have struggled or it was difficult for us to show our quality in both competitions. We're unbeaten in the Premier League and to show the same quality in the Champions League was the problem for us.
"We have a very good squad from the beginning, I've always told you we have good players but we struggled to show we have enough quality to share in both competitions. That's all I said after Monaco."