The difference in Tottenham Hotspur's preparations for the Premier League restart has been shown in a table of the friendly fixtures in recent weeks.
Jose Mourinho's men will go into Friday's match against Manchester United with just one friendly match against Norwich City under their belt.
Spurs did have an in-house match amongst themselves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week and had planned to play Norwich and Reading with 24 hours on Friday and Saturday.
However, Tottenham made the decision to cancel the friendly against Reading after two people from the Championship outfit tested positive for COVID-19.
Instead Mourinho agreed with Norwich boss Daniel Farke to play a two hour match, with four quarters to enable plenty of players to get game time. As it was, after the game one Canaries player involved was found to have tested positive as well.
Mourinho admitted afterwards that he would have liked to arranged another friendly but at this late stage it was not worth the risks involved and instead he will his players through their paces at Hotspur Way.
How does that compare with others in the Premier League and their preparations?
Sheffield United have played four friendlies ahead of the restart, winning two and drawing one.
Aston Villa have played three, winning two of them while many of Spurs' top four rivals, including Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester City and United have all played two games to ready themselves.
However, while Spurs sit bottom of the points per game friendly table below, league leaders Liverpool have only played the one friendly and five other teams have just played the once.
In fact Bournemouth, Brighton, Everton and Manchester City have not played anyone ahead of their return to competitive action.
The Premier League teams are going to return after three months without a competitive game in very different states of readiness with some feeling match action was the way to go and some believing that hard work on the training ground alone would do the trick.
The results will soon become clear this week as the games get underway and come thick and fast.
