Jose Mourinho has said that Tottenham Hotspur’s attacking players need “escalation” in the absence of striker Harry Kane.

Kane is expected to return to action next week after suffering an ankle injury in the defeat to Liverpool the previous week.

Without the England international player on his side, Tottenham lost three games in a row for the first time since 2012 and dropped to eighth in the Premier League table.

Carlos Vinicius, who has yet to score in the Premier League, led Tottenham’s streak in the absence of Kane alongside Heung-Min Son and Stephen Burgoyne against Chelsea. Eric Lamela and Lucas Moura were both introduced as substitutes an hour later, but Gareth Bale remained on the bench even though Mourinho used only two of the three permitted changes.

Speaking after the 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea led by Thomas Tuchel, the Tottenham manager said: “The team cannot count on a player.

“Even the biggest teams in the world, when Player X is not around, miss it. We can see many examples of what some players mean to some clubs.

3:05

Sure, Harry is very important to us because he leads and creates, but of course the other players have to progress.

“Today, Vinicius did his best. He could score his goal, and I am happy with his efforts.

“The other players, except for (Heung Min) Son, are not a scorer. They are not the type to score 8-10 goals in one season, so we have to fight with what we have.”

Mourinho has confirmed that Kane will be the first injured Tottenham player to return, with Sergio Reguillon, Giovanni Le Celso and Dele Alli expected to return soon afterwards.

“No. Of all the injured, I think the first to return will be Harry,” he said.

1:59

The former Chelsea and Manchester United manager said Tottenham should focus on breaking their next league match against West Bromwich this weekend, and keeping upcoming matches against Manchester City and Everton, as well as the Europa League, away from their thoughts.

Mourinho continued: “I put pressure on myself every day, and I do not need others to pressure me.”

“The most important thing now is West Brom, I don’t even want to think about Everton or (Man) City.

Saturday 13 February 5:00 pm

Starting off 5:30 pm

“After City, we go to Austria in the European League, which is a great competition for us and we have good expectations in it.

“West Promicino is a big game. Sometimes the big games aren’t just against the top six or the London derby.”

“It’s a big game for West Bromwich Albion because they need to win, they need points to stay alive and get out of their place.

“It’s a big game for us because we need to leave the position we are in, and it’s not as dramatic as theirs, but it’s a very bad situation for us.

“We need to win. We need to break the dynamic of three defeats. We can’t even think of something different.”