Football news - Jose Mourinho: Spurs must be ready to fight for points

The Portuguese manager took over from Mauricio Pochettino at the end of 2019 and has been criticised during the coronavirus pandemic for failing to observe social distancing guidelines in small training sessions with some of his players.

However he acknowledges that despite his and his players' efforts, the team will not be at full fitness before full contact training resumes.

"It's not like Monday we are going to start training and immediately we are going to eleven against eleven because we are ready for that - no," he told beIN Sports.

"We are going to make sure progressively that we are going to arrive on match day one and be ready."

Mourinho told the broadcaster that he had noted the improvement over the course of the Bundesliga's restart and expects something similar in the Premier League.

"But you look to the Bundesliga and we can feel a difference of quality, intensity, between the first match and the third match.

"When you see Bayern against Borussia Dortmund, you feel immediately, wow, that's a proper match.

"I think the same is going to happen. Progressively, teams are going to reach the level, which is what happened in normal pre-season.

"It's very difficult that the team arrives in the first game of the season and is really in the top, so let's go step by step, and of course we want to be ready to fight for points and to give fun to people, give joy to Tottenham fans, to give good matches to everyone that loves football around the world."