Jose Mourinho praised his Tottenham charges for digging deep in order to overcome Newcastle United on Wednesday, admitting that the players were lagging before they even walked out at St James’ Park.

Spurs were in action just 72 hours after coming back from behind to win Sunday’s north-London derby while Newcastle, who had played the previous day, had the luxury of an extra 24 hours rest going into the Premier League clash.

Despite their fatigue, though, it was Mourinho’s men who ultimately came out on top in a clash which could prove vital to their European aspirations in 2020-21.

Son Heung-Min opened the scoring in the first half and, after Matt Ritchie had levelled for the hosts, Harry Kane scored twice – his 200th and 201st Spurs goals – to see Spurs through to a 3-1 win.

The victory moved Tottenham up to seventh place, just one point behind Wolves in the final Europa League qualifying spot after they dropped points to Burnley.

And Mourinho was in no doubt as to why his team were able to play through the tiredness and come home with three points.

“[It was] resilience, the team was tired before we even started,” the manager signalled to BBC Match of the Day after the final whistle.

“We had resilience and a great desire to win the match and to fight until the last for our objective which is the Europa League.”

Tottenham still conserve a slim mathematical chance of making the Champions League, although wins for either Manchester United or Leicester City on Thursday would extinguish that possibility.

Having taken over with Spurs in dire straits at the end of 2019, though, Mourinho would settle for the secondary club competition.

“Since I started we are fourth in the table. If we cannot get the Champions League than the Europa League is important.

“No doubt the subs were important. I knew they would give us the freshness that we needed.

“Harry Kane knows how important he is, he is incredible. After such a difficult recovery he is playing every minute of every game, this is the fourth game with two days in bewtween, we are the only team to have this, and Harry gave everything.

“I am proud of them and happy with the points. Serge Aurier is a very strong character, every person is different and in his case he wanted to play.