Mauricio Pochettino will not tolerate any excuses about tiredness when he takes Tottenham Hotspur into Sunday’s north London derby. Arsenal will have benefited from an extra day’s recovery from European exertions, having played Bayern Munich in the Champions League 24 hours before Spurs’ Europa League duel with Anderlecht on Thursday, but Pochettino said it is up to his players to ensure that has no bearing on the match at the Emirates Stadium.

“It is true that our opponents have an advantage because they have one day more to prepare and recover but we cannot complain and we need to be ready,” Tottenham’s head coach said. “We need to be strong in our minds and try to win the game because we know what the derby means.”

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Pochettino made no concession to Sunday’s match when he sent out a strong lineup on Thursday and his players had to delve deep to beat their tenacious Belgian opponents, with Mousa Dembélé scoring a late winning goal after being introduced from the bench. Spurs had a short turnaround for that game, as they beat Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday, whereas Arsenal’s last league game was at Swansea two days previously, meaning they had three days’ break before Wednesday’s heavy defeat in Munich. Pochettino would have welcomed the same amount of recuperation time between matches, especially given the high-intensity pressing style he demands, but the Argentinian is confident his players will continue to adapt to the schedule they are given.

“When you play on Monday, against a very motivated team like Aston Villa when you run and suffer a lot, it is one day less to recover,” he said. “Always you are late to prepare the game. We are a very young squad and we run a lot, sometimes the effort that we make is a lot. But I’m not complaining, it’s not an excuse. We are very strong in our minds and the way we showed character [against Anderlecht] and on Monday shows that we are ready to compete in a good way and will try 100% to win the game.

Spurs struggled to combine European and domestic duties last season, losing four times straight after Europa League games, but they have coped better with the workload this season, winning two and drawing one of the three Premier League matches that have directly followed European games. Pochettino attributes the improvement to the fact the players are now a year further into his strenuous regime, in which strong emphasis is placed on fitness.

“It’s not because we have a young squad. It’s because of the way we are training, our sports science and our medical staff,” he said. “When you push the players every day, sometimes double sessions, it is very hard for them to suffer in the way that we push them. You can be proud of how they recovered [for Anderlecht]. It is not a miracle, they work hard from the beginning of the season.”

Another satisfying aspect of the game against Anderlecht was the reappearance of Son Heung-min, who played for 31 minutes after returning from six weeks out with a foot injury. The recovery of the £22m South Korean forward could hardly have been better timed. Arsenal, meanwhile, remain seriously depleted by injuries to several important players.

Even if Arsène Wenger’s team were at full-strength, Spurs would travel to the Emirates with confidence, as they are unbeaten in the league since their defeat by Manchester United on the opening day of the campaign. Already some Tottenham fans are talking excitedly about the possibility of finishing in the top four for the first time since 2012 – and maybe even of concluding the campaign above Arsenal for the first time since 1995 – but Pochettino is not about to join in such conversations. “It’s too far to the end of the season,” he said. “We want to be at the top of the table but please don’t misunderstand me – we have to work a lot and improve a lot. It’s impossible to set a limit. We have a very young squad and we never set a limit.”