The Guardian

Pedro Porro is searching for the right words in Spanish, the ones that best convey what has driven him and, as so often, he leans on the wisdom of his grandfather, Antonio, the biggest influence on his career. “He always had three sayings,” the Tottenham full-back says during a break in preparations for Sunday’s home north London derby. “Vista larga. Paso corto. Mala leche.”

The first means “long view” or “big picture”, the second “short steps” and they are fairly self-explanatory in terms of what is needed on a life journey. The third is more problematic and has everyone reaching for Google to translate, Porro included. Yet “bad milk” is open to various interpretations.

According to the dictionary, it can mean bad mood or tendency to moodiness; also spite and meanness. Apparently, it is often used to reflect the belief that bad character could be passed down to a baby through a mother’s milk.

It does not scan entirely. “Fury,” Porro offers, looking up from his phone, and this is more like it. An edge, a hardness, even a nastiness that is needed to thrive. Porro is reminded of something he told the Guardian’s Sid Lowe in March 2023 when it was tough for him at Spurs after his mid-season move from Sporting Lisbon: “Let me loose in a prison and I’ll end up owning the place.”

Porro smiles because it was another phrase that Antonio taught him. And then he is off, opening up, sharing so much. Mala leche. Top dog in prison. It is more a state of mind conditioned by his childhood, one he will carry with him into the heat of the derby.

“Since I was small, I have had to fight for everything,” Porro says. “You had to be tough in my house. Often there wasn’t any food. I know others have that situation, too, but that is how it was. That is why I have had to be tough. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, this spirit. It’s a winning spirit, as well. It can be positive within the game. It’s been part of me since I started. If you want to reach the absolute top level, you have to be strong mentally.

“This toughness is something that is going to hold me in good stead against Arsenal. I just try to be focused 100% for every match I play. That is something I realised when I arrived here. You have to be 100% prepared every time you pull on the shirt of this team. It’s going to be a tight match, a beautiful match. I just hope it goes well for us.”

Porro, who turned 25 on Friday, grew up in the small town of Don Benito in Spain’s landlocked Extremadura province, in the west of the country. He always had a ball at his feet, the typical street footballer, and it was Antonio to whom he owes his career. He was also close to his maternal grandmother, Maria del Carmen, who died in 2022.

“I lived with my grandparents because my parents were always working,” Porro says. “They had to work really hard to put something on the table for me. It was my grandfather who wanted me to get into football; in reality, he was my father in football, the one who took me to all the different places to play. He still calls me. He has said that he can die easy and peacefully knowing he has seen his boy reach the top of the game.”

Porro’s path has been far from straightforward. It was a difficult time when he left home at 14 for a youth contract with Rayo Vallecano in Madrid. He impressed during his first full professional season at Girona in 2018-19 and yet the club were relegated from La Liga. Then there was the move to Manchester City in the summer of 2019 and the immediate loan to Real Valladolid. He was there and not there at City; a weird feeling. Valladolid did not work out.

But everything changed for him at Sporting, where he went on an initial loan from City in the summer of 2020, and one way of charting his story there is through “the Legend of the Shorts”. Porro smiles even more as he remembers it, how he turned up for his presentation in a pair of heavily ripped denim shorts that, for reasons unknown, he did not change out of. Rocking the green-and-white Sporting shirt with the shorts was a strong look and there were raised eyebrows, mockery.

Then came the cult hero bit. After Porro settled and started to show his best form, there were memes of him in the shorts with pictures of various attackers in the pockets. The shorts even featured in Porro’s tearful farewell video. He puts them on a hanger in his locker, packs his bag, turns and leaves, the final image being of Sporting’s badge and the shorts. “Obrigado, Porrito,” is the closing message: “Thank you.”

“The transfer to Sporting was going through, I was on the beach and I didn’t have anything to wear … I was just wearing the shorts,” Porro says. “When I left, they sort of passed into history. It’s an anecdote that keeps on running and I think it shows my personality, as well. I’m happy to laugh at myself.”

Porro’s difficulties in his first few months at Spurs were well documented but the club’s supporters are not talking about them now; not after how he grew last season. It was the latest example of the steeliness of his resolve, not to mention his swashbuckling talent.

What the fans want to know is why Porro was overlooked by Spain for Euro 2024; the manager, Luis de la Fuente, had Dani Carvajal at right-back with Jesús Navas in reserve. Porro had won his third cap in March – 12 months on from his second, which was two years on from his first. De la Fuente did not pick him again in the international window just gone.

Now for the derby, which offers Spurs the opportunity of revenge against Arsenal for last season. “Set pieces,” Porro says, unprompted, a nod to how his team conceded twice on corners in the first half. Spurs were 3-0 down at the interval; they ended up losing 3-2.

The main pre-match line takes in the absences of Declan Rice and probably Martin Ødegaard for Arsenal. Surely, they raise Spurs’ hopes? Porro does not look at it that way. His focus, as ever, is on what he can do. “We are a different team this year,” he says. “I think you can see that in the first three matches, even if the results in football don’t always go the way they should.

“It’s our second year working together and it’s a matter of becoming more familiar with each other. Confidence and trust comes from that.

“I was at the supermarket in the week and found myself among some Spurs fans, who were all talking to me about the match. That’s a really beautiful thing. You are out and about with your family and you see that support. It’s something that fills you with energy. Come Sunday, we are going to be really prepared for it.”

Stoke Newington on the verge of derby weekend is not a place for the faint of heart. Located right in the centre of the bitter turf war between the ­historic rivals Arsenal and Tottenham, even on a sunny Friday lunchtime its leafy parks and terrace-lined streets drip with menace. Take a wrong turn, or catch the wrong eye, and nobody can really say what will happen next. A King Charles spaniel yowls ferally on the approach to Clissold Park. The blood on the pavement outside the bakery turns out, on closer inspection, to be jam from a doughnut.

Such is the omertà around this 111-year feud, which resumes on Sunday afternoon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, that local business owners feign impartiality or even ignorance of the forthcoming fixture, presumably wary of reprisals from rival fans. “Is it Spurs v Arsenal this weekend?” says a woman arranging the display of a local flower shop, who gives her name only as Laura. “I’m not much of a football fan.”

Nobody in the local estate agent will claim an interest either, although one guy near the back – whose identity I have protected for his own safety – reckons Arsenal may struggle if they are without Martin Ødegaard.

Undeterred, the Observer has embarked on a mission to discover what makes this derby one of the most ferociously contested grudge matches in the whole of professional sport. For the global television audience of ­millions, this is simply 90 minutes of product, along with all the attendant hype and gossip that accompanies it. But for those involved, it’s far more than that. It’s a way of life.

Which is why this newspaper has decided to take a bold trek out of its comfort zone, into the oft-mythologised but largely uncharted wilderness known as “north London”. Who are these people? What drives and fulfils them? And how has football given back some pride to a region better known for centrist politics and open-water swimming?

Three miles away, in the Coach & Horses pub on Tottenham High Road, the panel above the bar is bedecked in memorabilia, from signed shirts to flags. This is Spurs territory. A sign hooked around the whisky dispenser reads “Home Fans Only”. An Arsenal fan walking into this pub would quite literally be taking their life into their hands. It’s still only noon, but already a couple of hardened regulars have taken their usual seats at the back of the room.

I ask, by way of conversational ice-breaker, whether they are Tottenham fans. “Sunderland,” replies one. “Shamrock Rovers,” says the bloke next to him in a Dublin accent, a wizened and genial old fellow who will later give his occupation as “male model”.

“I’m the only Spurs in here,” calls the landlady, a jolly woman of middle years called Tina. As you can imagine, running a Spurs pub on derby day is not a job for the meek. The Coach & Horses will be packed to overfilling, security hired to keep order, as well as to enforce the rule on no visiting fans.

But what about the rest of the time? What if an Arsenal fan – known pejoratively in these parts as a “Gooner” – were to stray over the threshold? Would they simply be turfed out? Or would a more exemplary punishment be demanded? “Oh, that rule’s just for match days,” Tina explains. “We get Arsenal fans in here all the time. There’s one over there. She’s my daughter.”

She points towards the other end of the bar, where a young woman is chatting on her phone. It turns out that Tina is that rarest of specimens: a Tottenham sleeper cell. Her entire family are Arsenal fans. She even lives in Holloway, in the shadow of the Emirates Stadium. So how did she end up becoming baptised into the church of Tottenham? “Because I’m special,” she says.

As with so many intractable conflicts, nobody quite knows where the battle lines lie. Hornsey and Finsbury Park are definitely Arsenal territory; Stamford Hill and Seven Sisters more Spurs. But even within these broad distinctions there is room for nuance. There are Spurs fans living in Holloway and Arsenal fans living in Walthamstow. Essex and Hertfordshire are contested territory. Rival tribes often live side by side, sharing the same workplaces and schools, even the same bed.

The potential for skirmishes, even full-blown violence, is endless. Like many of the world’s other great derby cities – Glasgow, Rome, Buenos Aires, Belgrade – north London must feel like a tinder box constantly on the verge of ignition.

“That’s religion, though, isn’t it?” posits an Arsenal fan in the Little Wonder cafe just off the Holloway Road. We’ve taken the short trip south, into Arsenal turf, in search of the opposite perspective on this eternal civil war. “This isn’t that. It’s just banter. Bragging rights. I mean, you always get a few idiots causing trouble. But we don’t hate each other.” “I don’t know about that,” his mate responds. “Tottenham fans are just different, aren’t they? Somehow. I can’t really explain it. Maybe it’s moral fibre.”

Perhaps the deadliest flashpoint in the recent history of the Arsenal v Tottenham feud came almost a decade ago, when what should have been a joyous victory parade to mark Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph ended in ugly scenes. An Arsenal player called Jack Wilshere addressed the crowd outside the Emirates and started a familiar anti-Tottenham chant. “What do we think of Tottenham?” he asked. “Shit!” came the response. “What do we think of shit?” he continued. “Tottenham!” “Thank you!” he responded.

In the pandemonium that followed, the club’s in-house TV channel was forced to cut its live feed of the parade. Wilshere was the subject of an internal disciplinary process and would leave the club barely a year later.

Mark Doidge is a sociologist at Loughborough University and an expert in the culture of football fandom. “Football is a great way to understand how social groups form,” he says. “Who we are is partly about what we do in common with ­others like us. But it is also about who we are not. So rivalry is about bragging rights, symbolic superiority over ­others to reinforce who we are.”

Why, then, do some rivalries inspire fear and carnage, while others feel so performative, almost forced, based exclusively in banter and irony? “It’s partly tied to cultures of masculinity and hooliganism,” Dr Doidge says. “Basically, the fans themselves bring emotion and intensity to the spectacle.

“The more they care – the more their identity is wrapped up with the club in what psychologists call ‘fused identity’ – the more likely the rivalry will lead to off-the-pitch events. Maybe the context of north London provides other opportunities for fans to have identities away from football? Which means they are less likely to feel damaged by a loss?”

The police vans and horses will be out in force again on Sunday, in anticipation of trouble. Broadcasters and social media accounts will remind us that this is a blood feud, a dynastic dispute almost as old as north London itself. Many of the fans descending on Tottenham from Islington and Stoke Newington, from Hackney and Heathrow airport, from the suburbs and the home counties, will have paid hundreds or even thousands to secure their place: a measure, perhaps, of just how deep the passion runs.

Then a whistle will blow and the conflagration can begin: two tribes who thoroughly despise each other, or at least feel as if they probably should.

Ange Postecoglou is adamant Spurs will not change their freewheeling approach for anyone and that conceding goals comes with the territory in attempting to establish themselves as a force at the top of the Premier League.

Tottenham host Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, hoping to make an early-season statement after a mixed start that has seen them lose points to sucker punches at Leicester and Newcastle.

Their north London rivals will be primed to expose the spaces Postecoglou’s side often leave but he is not worried about the prospect of a hefty goals-against tally at the end of the campaign. “If you’re going to be more attacking, you’re going to have more gaps the other way,” he said. “I get it. People say: ‘We want you to be more attacking, but we want you to be really solid defensively.’ We’re talking about perfection. That doesn’t exist with anyone.

“We’re erring on the side of being more attacking and aggressive, which may mean we concede more than others, but that’s fine. I’m comfortable in that space.”

In April’s edition of this fixture, Arsenal raced into a three-goal interval lead that proved decisive despite two Tottenham responses. Mikel Arteta’s players enjoyed particular success on the counter that afternoon and Postecoglou was asked whether there could be any temptation to adopt a more circumspect approach this time. “I guess there can be,” he said. “But there won’t be.”

It was put to Postecoglou that a high-profile derby win could restore faith among supporters concerned by their drop-off in form, which saw five of their last seven games in 2023-24 end in defeat. “If people have lost faith in what we’re doing, I cannot let that be my guide to what we’re doing,” he said. “My guide is what I see on a daily basis, the way we play our football, the way the team is growing and I’m as optimistic and as bullish as I’ve ever been.

“I want to win big games. But we won big games early last season. It doesn’t mean it’s going to get you to where you want to get to. There’s got to be a consistency in approach. There’s nothing I’ve seen to make me waver in my belief about what we’re doing. There’s only one way to change [perceptions] if people have lost faith in what we’re doing here and that is to perform and win.”

Postecoglou commented on the FA charge given to Rodrigo Bentancur for alleged misconduct after a remark made about his teammate Son Heung-min in June. “They had their discussions about the whole incident and both players understand and respect each other’s position,” he said. “Rodri has already apologised for what he said and Sonny has accepted that. We understand that even though [Bentancur] is a great guy and a fantastic teammate, he has made a big error this time and he has to take the punishment, but also that we [need to] give him the opportunity to atone for it and learn from it.”

Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke, who have missed the past one and two matches respectively through injury, are available. Yves Bissouma is a doubt with what Postecoglou described as “a tweak in his groin”.

Mikel Arteta has said Raheem Sterling must rebuild his confidence after being discarded by Chelsea and, before Sunday’s north London derby, has backed the England forward to rediscover his best form.

Sterling is in contention to make his Arsenal debut at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after completing his loan move on deadline day. The 29-year-old was surplus to requirements at Chelsea two years after joining from Manchester City and Arteta said it had taken only a 10-second conversation with Sterling to persuade him to pursue a deal.

But the Arsenal manager, who worked closely with Sterling at City while as an assistant to Pep Guardiola, also recognised that the player had lost confidence after his experiences at Chelsea and losing his place in the England squad.

“That is going to fluctuate in everybody’s career,” Arteta said. “Knowing him and how he is about always playing, always being present and important, when you have that status and role, for that to be changed, that hits you. We have to rebuild that but we have all the foundations and right context for him to get to the level we want.”

Arteta, asked whether he thought Sterling still possessed the hunger to succeed at the highest level, said: “His first words were: ‘I was dreaming about this call.’ That’s it. That tells you that he really wants it and was already thinking about the possibility and he could see himself here, delivering and enjoying his profession. When that happened, the rest I knew about him, so that blew all the question marks away. It is one of the things I love most about Raz – you take him to any ground, anywhere in the world, and he is willing to be there to make the difference.”

Sterling is vying with Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard to start against Spurs on the left of Arsenal’s attack, although Arteta could mix things up if Martin Ødegaard is unfit. Tests on the Norway midfielder’s injured ankle have proved inconclusive but Arsenal are understood to be hopeful it is not as bad as feared and Arteta refused to rule him out of contention. It seems unlikely he will be available, in which case Arteta will be without three key midfielders given Declan Rice’s suspension and the shoulder injury sustained by Mikel Merino.

Arteta – who said he had “higher ambitions to fulfil” at Arsenal after signing a new three-year contract this week – insisted he would have no qualms about starting Ethan Nwaneri after being impressed with the 17-year-old playmaker’s progress since being added to the first team squad.

“I think big credit to everybody working in the academy that have prepared the player to be in the right position right now to shine,” he said. “He’s been doing really well, physically very mature, personally very mature, his game understanding has improved a lot. And then let him do it. He has an enormous quality, a lot of talent and he needs the space to shine.”

SOUTHAMPTON v MANCHESTER UNITED

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports Venue St Mary’s

Referee Stuart Attwell This season G2 Y8 R0 4 cards/game

Southampton

Subs from McCarthy, Lallana, Bree, Fernandes, Archer, Taylor, Ugochukwu, Amo-Ameyaw, Dibling

Doubtful Stewart (match fitness)

Injured Sulemana (ankle, 21 Sept), Bazunu (achilles, Feb)

Suspended None

Form LLL Leading scorer Sugarawa 1

Manchester United

Subs from Heaton, Bayindir, Maguire, Evans, Amass, Casemiro, Eriksen, Wheatley, Antony, Diallo

Doubtful None

Injured Lindelöf (toe, 21 Sept), Shaw (calf, 21 Sept), Højlund (hamstring, 21 Sept), Mount (muscle, 21 Sept), Malacia, (knee, Oct), Yoro (foot, Nov)

Suspended None

Form WLL Leading scorer Diallo, Zirkzee 1

BRIGHTON v IPSWICH

Saturday 3pm Venue Amex Stadium

Referee Sam Barrott This season G2 Y12 R0 6 cards/game

Brighton

Subs from Steele, Lamptey, Igor, Webster, Enciso, Rutter, Adingra, Estupiñán

Doubtful Gruda (knock), Wieffer (muscle)

Injured March (fitness, Oct), Milner (hamstring, Oct), O’Riley (ankle, unknown)

Suspended None

Form WWD Leading scorer João Pedro, Welbeck 2

Ipswich

Subs from Walton, Chaplin, Cajuste, Al Hamadi, Johnson, Townsend, Luongo, O’Shea, Clark

Doubtful Broadhead (match fitness), Clarke (match fitness)

Injured None

Suspended None

Form LLD Leading scorer Delap, Szmodics 1

CRYSTAL PALACE v LEICESTER

Saturday 3pm Venue Selhurst Park

Referee Tony Harrington This season G1 Y3 R0 3 cards/game

Crystal Palace

Subs from Matthews, Ward, Holding, Clyne, Sarr, Schlupp, Doucoure, Nketiah

Doubtful None

Injured Franca (rib, 28 Sept), Chalobah (abdominal injury, 28 Sept), Riad (knee, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LLD Leading scorer Eze 1

Leicester

Subs from Iversen, Mavididi, El Khannouss, Reid, Pereira, Vestergaard, Soumaré, McAteer, Buonanotte

Doubtful None

Injured Stolarczyk (ankle, unknown), Daka (ankle, unknown)

Suspended None

Unavailable Edouard (parent club)

Form DLL Leading scorer Buonanotte, Faes, Vardy 1

FULHAM v WEST HAM

Saturday 3pm Venue Craven Cottage

Referee Tim Robinson This season G1 Y4 R0 4 cards/game

Fulham

Subs from Benda, Andersen, Reed, Jiménez, Wilson, Cairney, Cuenca, Berge, Castagne

Doubtful None

Injured None

Suspended None

Form LWD Leading scorer Iwobi, Smith Rowe, Traoré 1

West Ham

Subs from Fabianski, Foderingham, Coufal, Todibo, Casey, Orford, Soucek, Summerville, Guilherme, Soler, Antonio, Ings

Doubtful Füllkrug (achilles)

Injured Cresswell (thigh, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LWL Leading scorer Bowen, Paquetá, Soucek 1

LIVERPOOL v NOTTINGHAM FOREST

Saturday 3pm Venue Anfield

Referee Michael Oliver This season G3 Y13 R0 4.33 cards/game

Liverpool

Subs from Kelleher, Gomez, Endo, Núñez, Gakpo, Elliott, Tsimikas, Quansah, Bradley

Doubtful Elliott (foot), Jones (muscle)

Injured None

Suspended None

Form WWW Leading scorer Díaz, Salah 3

Nottingham Forest

Subs from Miguel, Awoniyi, Domínguez, Moreira, Moreno, Silva, Yates, Sosa, Boly

Doubtful Boly (calf), Sangaré (knock)

Injured Danilo (ankle, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DWD Leading scorer Wood 2

MANCHESTER CITY v BRENTFORD

Saturday 3pm Venue Etihad Stadium

Referee Darren Bond This season G1 Y4 R0 4 cards/game

Manchester City

Subs from Carson, Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Wilson-Ebrand, Nunes, McAtee, Perrone, Foden, Kovacic, Sávinho, Doku

Doubtful Haaland (compassionate)

Injured Bobb (broken leg, Dec), Aké (unknown, 28 Sep)

Suspended None

Form WWW Leading scorer Haaland 7

Brentford

Subs from Valdimarsson, Van den Berg, Schade, Carvalho, Onyeka, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard, Trevitt

Doubtful None

Injured Henry (match fitness, 28 Sept), Jensen (calf, 28 Sept), Gustavo Nunes (back, Oct), Thiago (knee, Dec), Dasilva (knee, unknown), Hickey (hamstring, unknown)

Suspended None

Form WLW Leading scorer Mbeumo 3

ASTON VILLA v EVERTON

Saturday 5.30pm Sky Sports Premier League Venue Villa Park

Referee Craig Pawson This season G2 Y9 R1 5 cards/game

Aston Villa

Subs from Gauci, Zych, Barkley, Durán, Buendía, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Swinkels

Doubtful Bailey (hamstring), Carlos (knock), Kamara (knee), Mings (knee), Philogene-Bidace (knock), Watkins (knock)

Injured Cash (hamstring, 29 Sept)

Suspended None

Form WLW Leading scorer Durán, Onana 2

Everton

Subs from Virgínia, Beto, O’Brien, Doucouré, Young, Lindstrøm, Garner, Armstrong, Dixon

Doubtful Coleman (ankle)

Injured Branthwaite (groin, unknown), Broja (foot, unknown), Patterson (hamstring, unknown), Chermiti (foot, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LLL Leading scorer Calvert-Lewin, Keane 1

BOURNEMOUTH v CHELSEA

Saturday 8pm Sky Sports Premier League Venue Vitality Stadium

Referee Anthony Taylor This season G3 Y7 R0 2.33 cards/game

Bournemouth

Subs from Travers, Huijsen, Brooks, Scott, Ouattara, Smith, Sinisterra, Hill, Aarons

Doubtful Billing (back), Brooks (shoulder), Unal (toe)

Injured Adams (back, unknown)

Suspended None

Unavailable Arrizabalaga (parent club)

Form DDW Leading scorer Semenyo 2

Chelsea

Subs from Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Chukwuemeka, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Mudryk, Guiu, Felix, George, Sancho, Nkunku

Doubtful Jorgensen (knock)

Injured Lavia (hamstring, 21 Sep), James (hamstring, 28 Sep), Kellyman (knock, unknown), Gusto (hamstring, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LWD Leading scorer Madueke 3

TOTTENHAM v ARSENAL

Sunday 2pm Sky Sports Premier League Venue Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Referee Jarred Gillett This season G2 Y10 R0 5 cards/game

Tottenham

Subs from Forster, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Johnson, Spence, Bentancur, Davies, Odobert

Doubtful Solanke (ankle), Van de Ven (knock), Bissouma (knock)

Injured Richarlison (muscle, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DWL Leading scorer Son 2

Arsenal

Subs from Neto, Setford, Rojas, Kiwior, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Heaven, Martinelli, Sterling

Doubtful Ødegaard (ankle); Calafiori (calf)

Injured Tierney (hamstring, unknown), Tomiyasu (knee, unknown), Merino (shoulder, unknown)

Suspended Rice (one match)

Form WWD Leading scorer Havertz 2

WOLVES v NEWCASTLE

Sunday 4.30pm Sky Sports Premier League Venue Molineux

Referee Chris Kavanagh This season G2 Y8 R1 4.5 cards/game

Wolves

Subs from Bentley, Doherty, Bueno, André, Hwang, R Gomes, Doyle, Sarabia, Guedes

Doubtful Lemina (knock), Aït-Nouri (knock), Mosquera (muscle, unknown)

Injured González (knee, unknown), Kalajdzic (knee, unknown), Traoré (knee, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LLD Leading scorer Bellegarde, Cunha, Strand Larsen 1

Newcastle

Subs from Dubravka, Krafth, A Murphy, Longstaff, Trippier, Hall, Willock, J Murphy, Osula, Targett

Doubtful Willock (thigh)

Injured Wilson (back, October), Miley (back, October), Botman (knee, January), Lascelles (knee, January)

Suspended None

Form WDW Leading scorer Barnes, Gordon, Isak, Joelinton 1

Tottenham Hotspur completed the signing of the Spain midfielder Maite Oroz from Real Madrid just 90 minutes before the summer transfer window closed on Friday. The 26-year-old, who was Real’s co-captain, has agreed a four-year deal in north London and will provide a huge boost to Robert Vilahamn’s side.

Brighton and Hove Albion were also working late into the night on Friday and were understood to be confident of finalising a deal to sign the England forward Nikita Parris from Manchester United, having already secured the loan signing of the Arsenal and England youth international striker Michelle Agyemang.

The former Arsenal and Manchester City star Parris is understood to have undergone a medical in Sussex ahead of the move from United, who themselves left it very late in their pursuit of a goalkeeper to replace Mary Earps. As of Friday evening, Marc Skinner’s side were still trying to get the addition of a shot-stopper over the line.

Earlier in Friday’s deadline-day drama, Aston Villa broke their transfer record by signing the Brazil forward Gabi Nunes from Levante for a fee understood to be about £250,000. The 27-year-old, who has been capped 22 times, has signed a two-year deal and, according to sources, is a player whose qualities have been admired by the new Villa manager, Robert de Pauw.

Meanwhile, West Ham have announced that the Brighton right-back Li Mengwen has joined the club on a season-long loan.

The 29-year-old made 11 appearances in the WSL last season, having joined the side from Chinese Women’s Super League side Jiangsu. She spent one season in France, on loan at Paris Saint-Germain, before joining Brighton.

“I’m delighted to be joining West Ham United,” Mengwen said. “It has felt like a bit of a rollercoaster over the last 24 hours as this decision happened very quickly, but now that I am here, I am so excited.

“I feel very proud to be a Chinese player playing in the Barclays Women’s Super League, and I’m truly honoured to be the first Chinese player to play for West Ham United. I am a determined, resilient player who will never give up.”

The defender has won 23 caps for her country and featured at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 Women’s World Cup. She will wear the No 26 shirt in East London.

Manager Rehanne Skinner said: “Mengwen has already shown an ability to compete in the Barclays Women’s Super League for Brighton and represent China on the international stage for a number of years, so we know we are bringing some invaluable experience to the team.

“Mengwen’s game understanding and professionalism, as well as her tenacity and desire to win are huge strengths to her game. Her skill set will fit our style of play perfectly, whilst complementing our existing defensive options within the squad.”

‘“No. I’m afraid it’s an addiction or an obsession – whatever you want to call it,” smiles David Pleat. We’re sitting in a hotel just off the M1 motorway where the 79-year-old recalled that he sold the defender Matt Jackson to the Everton manager Howard Kendall back in 1991 for £600,000. “He’d only played nine games for us … that was one of my best bits of business.”

Pleat, whose long association with Tottenham came to an end only a few weeks ago when he left his role as consultant scout, has just been asked whether he has any other interests outside football. It later emerges that the former Luton, Spurs, Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday manager has already attended an astonishing 14 games this season despite it only starting a month ago, including a National League fixture at Wealdstone and an academy match at Watford.

“I will still be watching games,” says Pleat. “I’m not sure who I’m watching for and at what level. A couple of people have spoken to me and Tottenham won’t stop me because they know I want to work. I made that clear when I left.”

From becoming the youngest debutant in Football League history to score, in 1962, to leading unfashionable Luton to the old First Division, the story of his life has been dominated by what Pleat’s hero Bill Nicholson called “the greatest game of all”. Like the appropriate 90 minutes spent in his company, Just One Goal – a new book written by Pleat in conjunction with the journalist Tim Rich over the course of several years – is full of anecdotes from a long coaching career that began when he took his preliminary badges while still a teenager at Nottingham Forest.

Half the proceeds of the book will go to charities researching motor neurone disease after he was inspired by the work done by the rugby league stars Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow, the latter of whom died in June. “It’s so wonderful what they have done,” says Pleat, who lost his wife, Maureen, in 2020 to the disease. “It’s such a terrible thing when people aren’t able to communicate or do anything for themselves – it’s a sad deterioration.”

Peter Taylor, Brian Clough’s long-term assistant, took Pleat under his wing and arranged for him to take over at the non-league club Nuneaton Borough at 26 after he had suffered a broken leg following his move from Forest to Luton. That spell was ended after a 4-0 thrashing by a 34-year-old Ron Atkinson’s Kettering. Having spent three months selling lottery tickets while he waited for the role to become free, Luton’s Harry Haslam eventually made him an assistant at Kenilworth Road and the rest is history.

“I was certainly going in as a very young manager,” says Pleat of his appointment to the top job at the age of 33; only two years older than Brighton’s Fabian Hürzeler, who became the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history this season. “But they’d had me as a reserve coach for a few years so they knew what I was capable of. They obviously trusted me and hoped that I would do well. I might have been good, but I was so lucky.”

The ability to spot a player is a skill that Pleat mastered at Luton, plucking Brian Stein, Ricky Hill and Mal Donaghy from obscurity and turning them into stars. Our conversation is interrupted by a call from Paul Elliott – the former defender who is now vice-chairman of Charlton – who remembers being one of seven black players to feature for Luton in a League Cup tie against Leyton Orient in September 1984. “I just picked the team on merit – it really didn’t matter to me,” says Pleat, whose parents had been born in London’s East End after their families escaped the Jewish pogroms in Latvia and Poland. “Looking back, I’m very proud of that.”

Pleat recalls several instances of antisemitism throughout his career, including one occasion when he ignored a comment from one of his Luton players. “I let it go. You become a little bit immune to it over the years.”

But the memories of perhaps Pleat’s most famous day remain untarnished. He can still recall minute details about the buildup to the game against Manchester City in 1983 when Raddy Antic’s late winner led to his celebratory jig across the Maine Road turf.

“I ran on to the field like an Australian wallaby,” laughs Pleat. “It was really out of character because I never used to go crazy about a win. The wonderful thing about Man City was that we not only survived, we stayed up for eight more years on 10,000 gates.”

“I didn’t know him well,” says Pleat. “But he really empathised with me, as did a lot of other people. They told me to get it out of my head and said: ‘Whatever they’ve paid someone to say about you, you have to keep going.’ I was advised that I could win the [libel] case but I just wanted to get on with my life. It was a difficult thing to do because I lost my self-esteem and confidence. I had to start again.”

After a spell at Leicester and a return to Luton, Pleat’s last managerial post was at Sheffield Wednesday before he went back to Tottenham as the club’s first director of football in 1998. He describes Alan Sugar as a “visionary” for introducing the role that has since been adopted by most top clubs. “I remember some of the journalists questioning why they were needed when I was appointed,” he says. “It’s really important that they have a good relationship with the manager but I don’t think they should know them too well because one day you might have to make a difficult decision.”

After three spells as caretaker manager and a brief departure before returning as consultant scout in 2010 to help discover the likes of Dele Alli and Son Heung-min, that day finally came for Pleat at the end of July. Tottenham now rely on a more data-driven approach under the new Danish technical director, Johan Lange, and he was deemed surplus to requirements.

“It’s something I’ve come to terms with – I understand stats and data and how they can be useful,” Pleat insists. “But data can only assist eyes and ears. The more people you know in the game, then the more they will talk. The analysts I see at games now are all bright boys who have done dissertations and they can tell you this player and that player from around the world. They’ve got everything at their fingertips – how many runs they make, how many goals they score. But they don’t see everything.”

Pleat admits he will always have doubts over whether he stepped away from frontline management too soon. But asked whether he would have been successful managing a big team for a significant length of time after achieving a win ratio of 54.9% while in charge of Tottenham, he is less convinced. “That’s a very good question – I don’t know how I would have coped with that. I may have been better at speaking to slightly lesser players, rather than people who were held in awe. I consider myself an underdog from the Luton days. The joy I got from beating a great team – that was a great happiness for me.”

The Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has been charged by the Football Association for an alleged misconduct breach for a remark made about his teammate Son Heung-min.

In June the Uruguay international was asked by the host of the Canal 10 show for a Spurs player’s shirt, to which he replied: “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”

The anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said it had received a “significant number” of complaints. Bentancur apologised to the South Korea international and Spurs skipper, who said that his teammate had “made a mistake”.

A statement from the FA said: “Rodrigo Bentancur has been charged with an alleged breach of FA Rule E3 for misconduct in relation to a media interview. It’s alleged that the Tottenham midfielder has breached FA Rule E3.1 as he acted in an improper manner and/or used abusive and/or insulting words and/or brought the game into disrepute.

“It’s further alleged that this constitutes an ‘aggravated breach’ which is defined in FA Rule E3.2, as it included a reference, whether express or implied, to nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin. Rodrigo Bentancur has until Thursday 19 September 2024 to provide a response to this charge.”

Arsenal are still waiting to discover the full extent of Martin Ødegaard’s ankle injury but their captain is expected to be unavailable for at least three weeks. This means he will miss Sunday’s north London derby and the trip to Manchester City on 22 September.

Ødegaard left the pitch in tears after a challenge from Christoph Baumgartner during Norway’s win over Austria on Monday and was pictured on crutches on Tuesday when he returned to Arsenal for more tests, with the Norwegian FA stating he had sustained “a bad ankle injury”. The 25-year-old is understood to have had a scan and will be assessed further by Arsenal’s medical staff as the bruising subsides.

But while Norway’s team doctor, Ola Sand, revealed that the initial MRI scan had ­indicated no fracture, he is still likely to be sidelined for at least the rest of September and would miss Arsenal’s opening Champions League game against Atalanta and the visit to City three days later.

“Such ankle injuries often take at least three weeks,” Sand told the Norwegian newspaper VG. “What we have so far obtained from the MRI examination in London is that there is probably no fracture in the ankle. It is always a bit difficult to interpret an MRI scan when you have had an old injury, but Arsenal are almost certain there is no breach, but this may still take some time.”

Ødegaard’s absence means Mikel Arteta will be without three key midfielders for the meeting with Tottenham. The new signing Mikel Merino is out for two months because of a shoulder fracture and Declan Rice is suspended after his red card against Brighton.

Jorginho – who signed a contract extension in May but has yet to feature this season – is expected to start alongside Thomas Partey, while Arteta also could opt to move the defenders Jurriën Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko or the striker Kai Havertz into midfield. The summer signing Riccardo Calafiori had to return early from international duty with Italy after colliding with France’s Ousmane Dembélé but is likely to be in contention against Spurs.

Arsenal will not be permitted to wear their home kit in the match for the first time since 1986 after Professional Game Match Officials Ltd ruled that it featured “too much white”. They will instead wear their black away kit with Tottenham also ­wearing different colours for the return fixture in February.

Meanwhile, the Premier League’s independent key match incidents panel has unanimously supported Chris Kavanagh’s decision to send off Rice against Brighton. The England midfielder was shown a second yellow card for delaying the restart of play.

Manchester United have signed the Norway forward Celin Bizet from Tottenham on a three-year contract. The fee is undisclosed but United are believed to have met her release clause, understood to be about £60,000.

Bizet travelled to Marbella with the rest of the United squad on Tuesday for their warm-weather, pre-season training camp after passing a medical on Sunday. The 22-year-old spent two seasons at Spurs after playing for Paris Saint-Germain. She scored four Women’s Super League goals last term in 20 appearances.

Bizet, who has 21 Norway caps, said: “I’m very excited to take this next step in my career, and sign for such a great club as Manchester United. I cannot wait to pull on the famous red shirt and create winning moments in front of these wonderful fans.”

She is United’s sixth summer signing, after the Canada midfielder Simi Awujo, the Netherlands defender Dominique Janssen, the France forward Melvine Malard, another Norway striker, Elisabeth Terland, and the Sweden full-back Anna Sandberg. It is believed the club are seeking a goalkeeper to replace Mary Earps.

For Tottenham, the sale of Bizet comes following their signing of the Australia winger Hayley Raso after her contract with Real Madrid ended.

United’s head coach, Marc Skinner, said: “Celin is an exciting, talented young player with lots and lots of potential. She suits exactly where we are trying to be as a team – we want young, hungry players, who can make a real difference.”