Mourinho says Tottenham's attackers need to 'step up' in the absence of Kane

Jose Mourinho says Tottenham's attacking players need to "step up" in the absence of striker Harry Kane.

Kane is expected to return to action next week following an ankle injury suffered in the defeat to Liverpool the week before.

Without the England international in their side, Spurs have lost three games in a row for the first time since 2012 and dropped down to the eighth in the Premier League table.

Carlos Vinicius, yet to score in the Premier League, led the line for Spurs in Kane's absence alongside Heung-Min Son and Steven Bergwijn against Chelsea. Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura were both introduced as substitutes after an hour, but Gareth Bale remained on the bench despite Mourinho only using two of his three permitted changes.

Speaking after the 1-0 home loss against Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea, the Spurs head coach said: "A team cannot depend on a player. Other players have to step up, that's the reality of things, but there are players who are special.

"Even the biggest teams in the world, when player x is not there, they miss it. We can see many examples of what certain players mean for certain clubs.

"For sure, Harry is very important for us because he leads, he creates, but of course other guys have to step up.

"Today, Vinicius tried his best. He could have scored his goal. I'm happy with his effort.

"The other guys, apart from (Heung-Min) Son, they are not goalscorers. They are not the kind of players to score 8-10 goals in a season, so we have to fight with what we have."

Mourinho did confirm Kane would be the first of Spurs' injured players to return, with Sergio Reguilon, Giovani Lo Celso and Dele Alli all expected back soon after.

"No. From all the injured guys , I think the first one to be back will be Harry," he said.

The former Chelsea and Manchester United boss says Spurs must focus on breaking their losing run in their next league fixture against West Brom this weekend, and keep upcoming fixtures against Manchester City and Everton, as well as the Europa League out of their thoughts.

"I put pressure on myself every day, I don't need others to put pressure on me," Mourinho continued.

"The most important thing now is West Bromwich, I don't even want to think about Everton or about (Man) City.

"After City we go to Austria in the Europa League, which is a big competition for us that we have good expectations in.

"West Brom is a big game. Sometimes big games aren't just against the top six or the London derbies.

"It's a big game for West Brom because they need a victory, they need points to survive and get out of where they are.

"It's a big game for us because we need to leave the position where we are, which is not a dramatic position like theirs is, but it's a very bad position for us.

"We need to win. We need to break the dynamic of three defeats. We cannot even think of a different thing."