Arsenal vs Tottenham: Mauricio Pochettino sends fitness warning to Arsene Wenger amid fixture pile-up

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino believes his squad's superior fitness means they will be physical ready for the north London derby trip to Arsenal this weekend despite facing two game in the space of four days. Spurs overcame Anderlecht thanks to Mousa Dembele's late goal to claim their second win in a week but their 10-match unbeaten Premier League run is under threat when they travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday [8 November].

Spurs have already proven themselves to have impressive powers of recovery having taken seven points out of nine from games which have followed mid-week Europa League ties this week. Pochettino will hope that record continues ahead of the trip to the co-league leaders. The Gunners have been in mid-week action themselves having lost 5-1 at Bayern Munich which could work as an equaliser come the weekend game.

Arsenal have won two of their three games after Champions League matches to prove they can too deal with juggling European and domestic demands. But Pochettino does not expect Arsene Wenger's side to hold a significant advantage come the game despite admitting Tottenham are jaded after playing the Belgian side three days after facing Aston Villa.

"The derby is a different game," the Tottenham boss explained. "You need to play with you heart and passion. I know what it means for our supporters. It is not important what happened in the past it matters how you take the game. We are in very good form. It is true all out opponents [after the Europa League] have always had one day more to prepare and for recovery. We cannot complain and we need to be ready and strong in our mind and try and win the game because we know what the derby means.

"I don't want to put the idea that they [Arsenal] have an advantage for the game but it is true when you play Anderlecht in the Europa League it is very difficult to play Sunday and then Thursday. But when you play Monday against a very motivated team like Aston Villa, and you run and suffer a lot, it is one day less to recovery and you are late to prepare.

"We have a very young squad and sometimes you run a lot and the effort we put in is a lot but I don't complain. It is information you can explain but I won't complain and it is not an excuse. We are very strong in our mind and the way we show character shows we are ready to compete in a very good way and 100% to try and win the game.

The Tottenham boss added: "It is not because we have a young squad [that we recover quickly]. We run a lot and now we win the games. It is because of the way we train and this is our sport science and medical team. When you need to push the player every day sometimes it is very hard for them to suffer because of the way we push them with running and training.

"Now you can say you are very pleased and you can be proud about them and how they recover every two days. This is not a miracle, it is working hard from the beginning of the season."