Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted some of his players are yet to return to the "optimum" fitness levels they need to play his high-intensity brand of football.
The Magpies have rather laboured through the opening weeks of the new campaign, scrapping their way to a 1-0 home win over Southampton with 10 men before escaping from Bournemouth with a 1-1 draw and then progressing in the Carabao Cup by virtue of a penalty shoot-out at Nottingham Forest in midweek.
Several of Howe's biggest names have looked decidedly rusty, in part the result of a truncated pre-season during which the club, who had travelled to Australia at the end of last season, headed for Japan.
Asked about the intensity needed to play the high-pressing game which has proved so successful during the 46-year-old's time at St James' Park to date, he said: "It's something you have to protect and work towards every single day because the players can't just turn up and perform that way in isolation, it's something we hone and work on continuously.
"It is related, of course, to our fitness. We have to be really, really super-fit to deliver that style of play for 90 minutes.
"That's something, I think, we're working towards. It's no secret that we've got a group of players that probably aren't at their absolute optimum fitness-wise. But very quickly, we've got to find our best physical levels to produce that style of play."
They could do with reaching that point in time for Sunday's home clash with Tottenham, who crushed Everton 4-0 last weekend.
Recent games between the sides have produced goals – 16 in the last three – and have been decidedly one-sided with the Magpies winning 6-1 and 4-0 on Tyneside either side of a 4-1 defeat in North London.
Asked about his memories of those two home games, Howe said: "They were two great days for us. Last year, they were contrasting games against Tottenham. You had the away game that was really disappointing, and then the home game which was equally as good the other way.
"We've got to make sure that we get on top of the details and we have the same mindset that we did last season, where our commitment to what we were trying to do was excellent. We were really ruthless and efficient on the day with the chances that came.
"But of course, that counts for nothing in this one."
Sandro Tonali is available for a league game for the first time since October after completing his 10-match ban, but Fabian Schar is suspended and Joe Willock has joined the injured list.
