Tottenham were out on the cold Hotspur Way pitches on Wednesday as the players trained in preparation for the Europa League match against Roma.
Spurs host the Serie A side on Thursday and the Italian outfit will arrive with a recently-appointed new manager in Claudio Ranieri, who famously won the Premier League title with Leicester despite Tottenham's best efforts that season. Now he will bring his Roma side to north London looking to get them back on track after a difficult season which finds them 12th in Serie A with just three wins from 13 matches.
They will take on a Spurs team with a lot of absent players yet still buoyant after Ange Postecoglou's side won 4-0 at Manchester City on Saturday in the Premier League.
The available players for the Europa League game plus a couple of unregistered ones were training at Hotspur Way on Wednesday and football.london were present to watch the opening stages of the session. Here's what we spotted during the 15 minutes of open training for the media.
Who was missing
Spurs now have six players missing following Guglielmo Vicario's fractured ankle. Watching the goalkeepers coming out was strange without the 28-year-old, who is currently recuperating in Italy following his surgery there before coming back to the UK on Friday to begin his road back to fitness.
Vicario joins a list of unavailable players that includes Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Richarlison, Wilson Odobert and Mikey Moore, as well as the suspended Will Lankshear, while Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon are not registered to play in the Europa League. The latter three all trained despite their unavailability.
Romero is expected back in group training either towards the end of this week or early next week, Van de Ven is getting closer and could be spotted in the gym while the others were training outside. Moore was hit hard by a nasty virus that worked its way through his system and the 17-year-old will still be another couple of weeks before he can be put through the physical intensity of a Postecoglou training session.
What they did
The media only gets to see 15 minutes at the start of training when it comes European fixtures and matchday minus one.
We could see the players being put through their paces in the gym to warm up before coming out and then they emerged into the chilly wind before going through some warm-up runs with various twist and turns and stretches.
The sports science staff then got them going through some passing drills before taking on a fun race in teams which involved taking a bib, putting a cone on one pole, taking one off another pole and then stuffing the bib in their hand through the free-kick wall figure on the other side for the next man to take and go through the same process in a relay.
Most of the four teams involved claimed victory at the end regardless of whether they'd actually finished first or not, including a particularly noisy group containing James Maddison, Pape Matar Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Destiny Udogie and Dominic Solanke.
Feeling the cold
The temperatures were low on Wednesday at the Enfield-based training ground with biting winds and you could hear a few players playfully screaming when they emerged from inside.
Most were wrapped up in snoods, hats, headbands and running leggings or tight tracksuit trousers to counter the wind chill but much of that will have ended up coming off once the real work of the training session properly kicked in. The young academy players had to grin and bear it without extra apparel as they looked to impress.
Some very young players
There's plenty of talent in Tottenham's academy and Postecoglou has not been concerned about age when picking players to step up into the first team set-up to cover the absences.
Nineteen-year-old goalkeeper Luca Gunter was practically an old man when you look at the outfield players who continued to be part of the first team after being on the bench against Manchester City. Highly-rated 16-year-olds Malachi Hardy, a centre-back, and attacker Luca Williams-Barnett were training with the Spurs stars on Wednesday along with another gifted youngster in 17-year-old midfielder Callum Olusesi.
Versatile defender Maeson King travelled with the team as the 21st man on Saturday in case of illness or injury and the 19-year-old continued to train with Postecoglou's group in this session.
All eyes will be on wonderkid Williams-Barnett, who will become the youngest player in Tottenham's history if Postecoglou brings him off the bench on Thursday night.
Playful Maddison
James Maddison was full of energy and bouncing all over the place like a mischievous imp in front of the media and the cameras. First as the players were coming out he ran up behind captain Son Heung-min and pulled his snood up from his neck and over his face.
Then he continued to enjoy himself during the drills and the race at the end of the warm-ups as he and his team-mates claimed the win. As he ran off to the far pitches to start the proper session he turned and threw one of the bibs at Pape Matar Sarr. The Senegal midfielder ducked and it went over his head and the 22-year-old raised his arm with a triumphant roar.
Both Maddison and Sarr were superb against City and it's no wonder they're both in such high spirits. Postecoglou will be looking for them to continue that form across the big block of games ahead.