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Pochettino wants Premier League to help clubs with Europa trips

(Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged the Premier League to help clubs travelling for midweek Europa League matches as his own team face an adverse schedule ahead of Sunday's match against Chelsea.

Spurs must board a six-hour flight to Baku in Azerbaijan for Thursday night's Europa League game against Qarabag, and return on Friday to begin preparations for the London derby against the Blues.

Tottenham's Europa League commitments have already seen them play three games in six days this month, although they did not have to travel out of England.

Spurs are on a 12-game unbeaten run in the league and are fifth in the league table, four points adrift of surprise leaders Leicester City.

Chelsea, who demolished Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday, sit 15th in the table after a dismal start to the season, but appear to be building momentum after winning back-to-back games for only the second time this campaign.

"To be fair, you need to compete in every competition with the same conditions as the opponent. I am not complaining," Pochettino told the British media.

"I only want to translate our feeling. I only want to bring attention to the conditions, that it's not fair to have two days less recovery than the opponent."

"Chelsea has two days more to recover. They play Tuesday, we play Thursday, and I think (Chelsea manager) Jose Mourinho will agree that he has a little advantage to prepare for the game. But it's not an excuse not to compete on Sunday and try to win the game."

"My question is; why not be attentive and careful to try to help the team who needs to compete in Europe? We need to be clinical in how we assess our players because the jet lag is very important," he added.

"In the future, the Premier League needs to give us more help and be more careful for them. I think next season, maybe we need to be careful, with better communication, and get help from the Premier League when the team plays in the Europa League."

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)