Mauricio Pochettino has admitted thrifty Tottenham need to "operate in a different way" if they want to win the Premier League title.

Spurs host Chelsea in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg at Wembley on Tuesday, hoping to take a step towards a first trophy since they won the competition back in 2008.

The club's net spend is roughly £30million in the four-and-a-half years since Pochettino's arrival – some £500m less than League champions Manchester City and £250m short of Chelsea, who spent £58m on Christian Pulisic last week.

At the end of last season, Pochettino called on the club to "be brave, take risks and work in a different way" – only for them to spend nothing in the summer – and on Monday he reiterated that the strategy must change if they want to consistently challenge for major honours.

"I need to be honest," Pochettino said. "I want to win the Premier League. The players and Jesus [Perez, assistant manager] want to win the Premier League or Champions League or a trophy.

"But if we want to win titles we need to operate in a different way. At the moment we operate in the same way as we operated five years ago when we arrived. Of course, maybe we can win some titles but it’s going to be a tough job because in that situation every club in the last five years was improving a lot.

“The other day I saw a stat about how teams were spending in Europe in the last 10 years and I think we were on the bottom – in England and Europe! Of course we’re doing a fantastic job but if we want to be real contenders we need to operate in a different way in the future.

"At the moment it’s fantastic – so far so good – but we’ll see if it’s enough to challenge and be consistent in the next five years operating in this way, if we’re capable to fight with the big sides in the same way that we’ve fought in the last four or five years."

However, Pochettino insisted that he was under no pressure from the club's hierarchy to win a trophy soon, explaining that he was ahead of the schedule set by the club's chairman Daniel Levy and owner Joe Lewis when they offered him the job back in May 2014.

"The most important thing that I accept that challenge when Daniel Levy called me to offer a contract here," the Argentine said. "He was clear – him and Joe Lewis. They said: ‘Mauricio, you need to prepare and to help the club to arrive to the new stadium. When we finish the new stadium, in the first season on the new stadium, [we need] to have a team that can finish in the top four in the season after.’

"We are in advance, no? That is why sometimes I laugh when the people say we need to win a trophy. Look at the project – we are in advance. And that is true and you can ask Joe Lewis or Daniel Levy. That is what they say to me.

"But we are so ambitious and we have the ambition to win. Of course, I want to win tomorrow. I want to win Sunday [against Manchester United]. I want to win, yes of course. But we will see if we can do something important."

Pochettino also played down the chances of Spurs adding to their squad in January but admitted the club – who are £637m in debt as they fund their new £1bn new stadium – cannot continue to progress without adding new players to the squad.

"You need to refresh the squad, you need to add quality," he said. "Sometimes you need refresh, all the teams are trying to improve. You cannot keep the same squad for five years. It is going to be difficult to find the motivation, to find the way to work.

"Some players after five years will have the same desire to work with you like the first day, but some players after one season need a different challenge, a different voice, they need to move. That is why for us it it a fantastic thing that we didn't sign [in the summer] but kept the squad motivated – 95 per cent of the squad is so happy, happy with the rules and you can feel that. We will see if we can stay for a long, long way like this. I think no, but in football a lot can happen."

Pochettino, who will be without Mousa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen, Victor Wanyama, Eric Dier and Lucas Moura against the Blues, called on his players to replicate the mentality they showed in the infamous 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in May 2016.

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Spurs squandered a 2-0 half-time lead to leave Leicester City as Premier League champions and picked-up a Premier League-record nine yellow cards in a foul-tempered affair.

"I enjoyed the game," he said. "It was disappointing but it showed our character and how we feel. We weren't capable of keeping the mentality that we showed. When you think of how we can improve our squad, it's not only about adding quality players, it's about being a bit naughty.

"We are so nice and in that game we showed we can be a little bit... If you want to win titles and be consistent, not only you need to play well with quality but being competitive is about being tough in some games. It was difficult to keep this level of aggression afterwards.

"Maybe we crossed a line but we did not go one step down but two or three steps down. We are a team everyone likes to watch over the last three or four years but we need to be a little bit naughty, smart in how we compete and we still miss that. We have the opportunity now against Chelsea and in the next few months to show we're capable of being more competitive than we were.

"Football is about quality, yes, it's about talent, yes but it's [mainly] about mentality," Pochettino added. "It's about being strong in your mind and to compete. It's about energy, attitude. If you match the opponent in motivation, attitude and energy, of course your quality is going to appear. We were very nice kids playing football and now we're more mature, more competitive. We'll see if that is enough to win titles."