Jose Mourinho saw evidence of exactly what Tottenham are missing in the absence of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min as Olivier Giroud scored for Chelsea on Saturday.

Giroud, who has been Chelsea's third-choice striker behind Tammy Abraham and Michy Batshuayi for much of the season, started against Spurs and netted the opener in a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, Mourinho's men were again without Kane and Son as they recover from injuries that are expected to keep them out for much of the season.

After the match, Mourinho repeated claims he could not wait for the end of the campaign as he spoke of the difficulty of competing in the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League with depleted attacking options.

"It's very difficult," he told a post-match news conference. "The next three months are going to be very difficult.

"In three or four weeks, [Moussa] Sissoko is back, and he's not a striker but he is another solution for us. I hope that by April, Sonny or Harry [Kane] makes a fantastic recovery like Hugo Lloris did.

"Hugo came to play a couple of weeks before the expected time. Nobody expected him to come when he did.

"So with effort of the players, the medical people, the sports science people that work with the injured players, let's hope it's not until the end of the season. Not months but weeks, like Simon [Felstein, head of communications at Tottenham] says [when confirming Son's injury]."

Mourinho added: "Look at Chelsea. They played the striker of the world champions [France international Giroud].

"On the bench was the second striker of England after Harry Kane [Abraham], in the stands the second striker of the Belgium national team [Batshuayi].

"We have zero strikers on the pitch, zero on the bench, zero in the stands. We have two in the hospital. That's the situation, an incredibly negative situation.

"I'm very proud of the boys, I cannot ask more from them. I am happy with them."

Even with Tottenham's issues, Mourinho chose to start with Dele Alli on the bench. But the Tottenham coach stood by his call, even if it did not pay off.

"We started the game thinking, 'Lucas and Bergwijn they are still more or less fresh, so let's try'. We tried, we didn't score," he said. "[Willy] Caballero made a great save.

"We know we cannot create lots of chances. So, in the last part of the game, what's the plan late in the game? We bring on [Erik] Lamela if we can. We bring on Dele.

"We didn't have a presence in the box, the opposition is going to try with the low block, so let's try to have one with Dele. We are trying to do things but it's very difficult for us."