Mauricio Pochettino has heralded Antonio Conte's tactical nous and smooth transition to English football with Chelsea clear at the top of the Premier League.

Pochettino's Tottenham host Chelsea at White Hart Lane on Wednesday, aiming to stop their rivals recording a record-equalling 14th straight win and stretching their lead at the top of the table to eight points.

Since losing 3-0 at Arsenal in September, Conte has switched to a 3-4-3 formation, with Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso as wing-backs, and Chelsea have not looked back, scoring 32 and conceding four -- and they secured a 2-1 win over Tottenham at Stamford Bridge in November.

"You don't win 13 games in a row if you don't have solid foundations in terms of your game and your character," Pochettino, who remembers facing Conte in a friendly in 1998, when the Italian was at Juventus and he was at Espanyol, told Gazzetta dello Sport.