Tottenham: Jose Mourinho confident of Premier League top-four finish

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho believes his side will qualify for next season’s Champions League by finishing in the Premier League top four in May.

Seventh-placed Spurs, beaten in the 2019 final by Liverpool, are aiming for a fifth consecutive top-four finish.

Mourinho, 56, has secured three wins from four league games since succeeding Mauricio Pochettino in November.

“We know where we belong and we believe at the end of the season we are going to be there,” Mourinho said.

“We don’t belong to the second part of the table where we were. We don’t even belong to position seven or eight, where we are in this moment.”

Victories over West Ham, Bournemouth and Burnley have taken Tottenham into the top half and have reduced the gap to fourth-placed Chelsea from 12 points to six.

They face sixth-placed Wolves on Sunday before hosting Frank Lampard’s side the following weekend.

Mourinho says his squad has the “talent and desire” to improve but a busy fixture list has made it difficult to coach his players in training as he would like.

“I want to work. I’m going to have time to work [in January], which until now I don’t have,” he said.

“I complain every day with my staff, the frustration of wanting to do a certain kind of training. I just can’t do it. It’s frustrating. I love pre-season to work.”-BBC