Pochettino described our 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge as his happiest victory since taking charge last summer, as his players worked tirelessly in attack and defence to secure all three points.

Trevoh Chalobah’s superb first-half header and Nicolas Jackson’s 14th goal of the season in all competitions meant we moved within three points of sixth-placed Manchester United with four games remaining.

Our excellent derby win came despite the Blues missing 14 first-team players through injury or fitness concerns.

Levi Colwill and Christopher Nkunku have returned to team training this week but Pochettino has stressed the importance of recovery ahead of West Ham as he continues to utilise our academy products in the matchday squad.

‘It is the most dangerous game because now we have to keep the same mentality for Sunday,' the Blues head coach said.

‘We are playing a team who are so strong, have physicality and West Ham are having a fantastic season and have been competing in Europe.

‘For us, we need to recover the players. We do not have too many options to add fresh people to the squad and they have had the whole week to prepare. That is why the most dangerous games are coming.’

Pochettino used his post-Tottenham press conference to highlight the off-the-ball work of players like Noni Madueke, as the exciting winger continually pressed the opposition and supported full-back Alfie Gilchrist.

The England Under-21 international was not alone and the mentality and work-rate shown is something Pochettino wants to continue to develop among his squad.

Along with Gilchrist, Chalobah and captain Conor Gallagher in the starting line-up, Academy graduates Josh Acheampong and Jimi Tauriainen, plus 21-year-old Cesare Casadei, all came off the bench against Spurs.

And Pochettino said: ‘The good thing is the players who are going to return from injuries, they really know and feel that they need to make the effort. It is not because you are a big name that you have the right to play in the way you want. I think that is the most important thing that we learned from [Tottenham Hotspur].

‘We learned it is not about quality because when you are at Chelsea we suppose you have the quality.

'The most important thing is to work for the team, to give your best and be at your best because if you do not compete and your level is 50 per cent, then it is better for us to have someone with less quality or is maybe younger but is competing at their best and at 100 per cent.

‘That’s happened during the season, where we had a lack of players and sometimes they were not at their best [physically] to compete and really get the result we deserved.’

He continued: ‘When you come from an injury, you always need time to build your condition to play at your best. Because of different circumstances or setbacks, we never had the whole team at our best. That is the difficult thing that sometimes explains why we have been inconsistent during the season.’

‘We cannot blame the players, it is the circumstances that happened,’ he added.

‘The players want to give their best and for different circumstances, they cannot express themselves on the pitch.

‘But of course, it is important that against Tottenham we showed that if we play in this way and compete in this way, we can achieve what we want.’