The Guardian

Tottenham fans will gather before their team’s game against Ipswich on Sunday to call for the release of Emily Damari, the last remaining British hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.

Damari, a Spurs supporter, has been in captivity for more than a year after being taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas. Stop The Hate UK, an activist group based in London, has been raising awareness about the 28-year-old, who is one of about 100 hostages in Gaza, and about 70 campaigners held a rally for her outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before Spurs faced Aston Villa last Sunday.

Stop The Hate representatives chanted “Emily Damari, she’s one of our own”, held up banners calling for her release and distributed leaflets about her story. The campaign will continue before Spurs host Ipswich, with campaigners calling on the British government to do more for Damari.

“Emily is a Brit and she should be remembered as a Brit and she should be treated by the public of this country as a British person,” Itai Gal, the leader of Stop The Hate, said. “We just haven’t seen too much from our government in the year and a bit now in regards to doing or saying anything for the hostages, let alone the British hostages.

“When we say ‘One of our own’ we mean it, because she’s a Spurs fan, because she’s a British person. She likes to drink cups of tea and loves football and likes going to the pub on a Friday afternoon with her friends. I don’t think enough people realise the fact that there is a real Brit sitting there for over a year now.”

The hope is that football can be a unifying force. “We want to harness that,” Gal said. “Once you focus on this it takes away many other reasons why not to do something – ‘Because she’s Israeli and I don’t know about this too much and people die in Gaza,’ and all these other differences. But when you come to football and say: ‘She’s one of our own, she’s sitting in a tunnel in Gaza,’ we want people to feel outraged. We wanted people to feel like they need to do something, however little it might be.”

How do you stop Khadija Shaw? The correct answer remains a mystery, but many of the wrong answers were unwittingly exposed by Tottenham’s out-of-sorts defending on Friday night during this one-sided affair.

Inside the first minute, the Spurs centre-back Clare Hunt learned the hard way that ideally you should not take too long on the ball when being closed down by the Women’s Super League’s top scorer so far this season, otherwise she will easily nip the ball away from your feet, bear down on your team’s goal and clinically tuck the ball into the net past your goalkeeper, Rebecca Spencer.

The visitors also learned the hard way that, when the England winger Lauren Hemp lifts a high cross towards Shaw in the six-yard box, it would be preferable to keep your eye on the ball and challenge for the header. Unfortunately Hunt, peering over her shoulder to look for Shaw, did neither of those things and the Jamaica striker was presented with the easiest of headers to make it 2-0 inside the first quarter of an hour.

“She’s an amazing striker but it’s also poor defending from us, to be honest,” a disappointed Tottenham head coach, Robert Vilahamn, said. “If you’re going to stop her, you need to be on her, you need to tackle in the right moments. She got into the game after 20 seconds and got her self-­confidence, and that’s not the way to play against her.”

It would be wrong to lay the blame entirely at Hunt’s door but when the Australia defender was substituted at half-time, it felt like a kindness. The former Paris Saint-Germain player is an Olympian and a World Cup semi-finalist but even a defender of such international calibre and experience appeared daunted by the task of ­facing Shaw in this kind of form.

The Switzerland defender Luana Bühler also paid the price for not marking tightly enough at the back post from a low Hemp cross in the 67th minute, allowing Shaw to complete her third hat-trick in her five WSL starts against Tottenham. It was Shaw’s 12th goal in those five games against Spurs and she became the first player to score three hat-tricks against the same opponent in the WSL. It was also Hemp’s third assist of the night, as the City winger proved equally unplayable at times.

The Netherlands midfielder Jill Roord had already fired home ­Manchester City’s third goal of the night from close range just moments earlier, shortly after Hemp had struck an effort that hit both posts before bouncing clear, but Shaw was the star of the show.

“Spurs seems to be a real team of joy for her,” the Manchester City head coach, Gareth Taylor, said of Shaw, who, with seven goals, has now scored more than twice as many as anybody else in the WSL so far this season.

“She is certainly the first presser in the team, winning the ball back aggressively. She’s really ­important for us as a focal point. She works really hard for the team and gets her rewards.”

Tottenham had arrived at the ­Etihad off the back of a morale-boosting, last-gasp victory over West Ham last Sunday but Vilahamn’s side were outclassed on Friday and registered only a single shot on target.

He added: “When they scored the goals at 3-0 and 4-0 that close directly afterwards, that kills us. We need to make sure we find ways to stay ­present in the games because, right now, it’s too many goals on too few chances against us.”

It does not get any easier for ­Tottenham next Saturday when they face an Arsenal side who, in Friday’s earlier kick-off, produced their best display of the season so far to earn a 5-0 victory at home to third-placed Brighton.

Extending their unbeaten run under the leadership of their interim head coach, Renée Slegers, with a third victory from a possible four, Arsenal enjoyed victory with goals from Beth Mead, Caitlin Foord, Frida Maanum and Lina Hurtig, before the England striker Alessia Russo netted a 95th-minute penalty to complete the rout.

It was only Brighton’s second defeat of the season and the convincing result saw Arsenal move up to fourth and within just one point of the Sussex club, but still seven points adrift of leaders Manchester City, whose purple patch continues.

Hugo Lloris lived in the intense pressure cooker of international football and the Premier League for so long that there is lightness and even relief as he describes how his day began for him in Los Angeles. “I woke up this morning and had breakfast with my kids,” he says with a grin as he chats away happily at home. “I then took them to school and obviously the weather is amazing. Just before our interview I went for a walk and I was still in shorts and a T-shirt … in November.”

Lloris laughs in mild disbelief. We speak on Monday, the day before America goes to the polls, and the 37-year-old goalkeeper says: “What’s really surprising when I am walking around the neighbourhood is seeing that people are not afraid to show who they’re voting for. You see the signs outside their houses. We are more private in Europe.”

The sunshine and hope in California has dimmed after the election. Donald Trump won only 40.1% ofthe vote in California compared to Kamala Harris’s 57.3%, but most of America gave him a resounding national victory. Lloris offers a shrug when we discuss the returning president’s bizarre and enduring popularity: “I know, but America is a huge country. I feel it when we play away. There are so many different mentalities, different expectations.”

Life goes on, and Lloris can now enjoy the fact that his new club, Los Angeles FC, topped the Western Conference at the end of the regular MLS season. Inter Miami were the Eastern Conference champions with an ageing, star-studded squad led by Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets. For Lloris this sparks memories of the 2022 World Cup final as he and Messi captained France and Argentina respectively in one of football’s most thrilling games.

Argentina won on penalties after a tumultuous 3-3 draw and, in his new book, Lloris details his lingering agony: “I’d meet people in the street who’d thank me for the beauty and emotional intensity of this final, assuring me that it was the most wonderful match they’d experienced in all their lives. Maybe when I’m old I’ll be able to see it like that. But not yet: it was a disaster because we lost, because we were crap for 80 minutes. And so the pain was unbearable.”

Lloris won a record 145 caps for France and led his country in successive World Cup finals, winning the first in Russia in 2018. He also captained France when they lost the final of Euro 2016 and played for Spurs in their 2019 Champions League final defeat. So, understanding the stark distinction between winning and losing, Lloris was mystified by the behaviour of Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, four days before that game against Liverpool.

Levy presented each player with a luxury watch and, on the back, he had engraved the words ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’. Lloris was astonished. “Who does such a thing at a moment like this?” he writes scathingly. “I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone. If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have ‘Winner’ engraved instead.”

Lloris’s disdain has softened slightly. “It was a really nice gesture from Daniel but obviously it was a bit weird,” he says. “You receive a really nice gift but, at the same time, this little detail shows you are not used to being in such a place.”

Did he ever ask Levy to explain his thinking, which suggested that just appearing in a Champions League final, rather than winning it, was worth such ostentatious celebration? “No, no, no,” Lloris says. “You don’t want to embarrass people. But the general feeling from the players is like: ‘Why? What is this? We haven’t started the game.’”

Lloris is also a diplomat and he adds: “I have a lot of respect for Daniel. I think he has done amazing work for the club. When I look at the position of Spurs when I arrived, [in 2012] and when I left [this January], it’s a different club.”

There have been seven permanent and contrasting managers in that period – André Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood, Mauricio Pochettino, José Mourinho, Nuno Espírito Santo, Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou – and yet the club has still not won a trophy since the 2008 League Cup.

Lloris makes it plain that he regards the sacking of Pochettino in November 2019 as a mistake while he was also bewildered by the “unbelievable timing” of Mourinho’s dismissal six days before the 2021 Carabao Cup final. He acknowledges that there were problems on the field and in the dressing room with Mourinho but is still astounded that the club fired a manager, whom they had hired for his silverware winning expertise, and replaced him with Ryan Mason as a caretaker.

Lloris believes that Spurs’ impressive rise under Pochettino, the manager to whom he has always been closest, needed support after the 2019 Champions League final. The club were in a position to enhance their progress but Levy chose to wait and, instead, invited in the Amazon cameras and soon dispensed with the Argentinian. Lloris remembers his disdain for the Amazon documentary and his disbelief when Pochettino told him he had been fired.

He is more forgiving of Levy now – which is easier as he and Pochettino, the new US head coach, are both happy in America. “When you look at the last three years, Spurs have been really active in the transfer market, investing lots in new players, on freshness, and that’s what the club needed to create a new dynamic. After the Champions League final the club was not ready to invest because there was also the new stadium to pay back and then there was Covid.

“Daniel always tried to make the right decision for the club and we were also a bit unlucky. At our best with Mauricio, we had to compete with the Chelsea of Abramovich, the Man City of [Pep] Guardiola, the Liverpool of Jürgen Klopp. It was really tough because if the club was ready to invest £50m, the others will invest £100m.

“But I feel we didn’t give the high credit that Mauricio deserved because he brought a new generation of players – Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli, Harry Kane and many more – to a new level. He created something really special in the building. You could feel the unity and we really enjoyed competing for each other. We brought the club to the next step but we had three finals and we could not score one goal in those games.”

Even if his last year at the club was marred by injury and discontent, and he never played for Postecoglou, Lloris still follows Spurs closely. “I really like what I see and I believe that they are going in the right direction. They have a proper football style, a mentality, and I think [Postecoglou] brought exactly what the club needed at this moment – freshness and a new fan expectation. That’s probably why I felt really heavy when we were with José or Antonio. It was a different football style.

“As long as you keep winning, there is no problem. But as soon as you start to lose one game, two games, the fans get even more frustrated and you could feel it at the stadium [under Mourinho and Conte]. Ange has a great personality and I think he’s building something important. Everything can change from one day to another but I think this team has character and personality to keep growing. I think they’re going to compete for trophies this season, like a League Cup.”

In his book, Lloris offers fascinating insights into playing football under the brooding Conte – who sounds as ferociously intense and ultimately alienating as you would imagine – and Mourinho whom he describes as being much more likable than his current reputation would suggest. “Yes, he’s a great man. If you are open to improve, to learn, it’s great to have him on your side. The only question that everybody asks is when the club decided to split with Mauricio, we had a proper football style. The club decided to change to try and win [by appointing Mourinho]. All the comments about Mauricio were the same: ‘Oh yeah, his team play amazing football, but they never won.’ So obviously Daniel and the board decided that they need to bring someone that can help the club to win. You cannot reproach anything about that – even if I felt the departure of Mauricio was really hard.”

The Spurs soap opera continues while, in the less frenzied world of MLS, Lloris insists that the standard of football in the US is higher than many expect. “I was talking about it a few days ago with Olivier Giroud [his LAFC teammate] and if you come to the MLS thinking that, ‘OK, I can put up my feet and relax’ you are totally wrong. It’s more competitive than people think. Obviously you cannot compare it with the Premier League, but it’s still competitive and very challenging, especially away from home with long trips, weather changes, altitude changes.”

As usual, Lloris negotiated his current deal without an agent. It is a sign of his singularity that he has never appointed one. “But I like to listen and spend time with them because the best agents are professional and experienced and I respect their work,” he says. “They make the market. But I still believe that a normal person has expectations in terms of numbers when he applies for a new job. So I have that but I took a lot of advice and I had loads of lawyers. I work with lawyers more than agents.”

Does he know of many footballers who work without an agent? “Nowadays there’s not many. But when Kevin De Bruyne signed his last contract with City I think he did it on his own. He just took all his data and compared it with the same profile of player and this is how he justified his numbers. That’s quite interesting. I’m the same. I am really close to all my business affairs. It’s how I grew up and something that my father transmitted to me.”

Lloris explains that, at LAFC, he has “a one-year contract with an option of two more years. I want to go year by year because I don’t know if mentally I will be ready to go again. But surprisingly I feel really good. In the last few years I got a little tired because the Premier League is really intense and demanding and there is lots of pressure when you wear the French jersey and are national captain [from 2012 to 2022].

“I could have stayed in Europe but I made the right choice coming here. I really needed something new and fresh.”

This was the kind of breathless, wild encounter in which both Galatasaray and Tottenham deal routinely and the only surprise was a goal tally that did no justice to a game whose openness beggared belief. In truth Spurs should have been blown to smithereens by hosts who had no idea how to apply the handbrake and had unloaded 28 shots by the end. A stunner from Yunus Akgun and two goals from Victor Osimhen, who had countless other chances, completed their tally by half-time but somehow Ange Postecoglou’s side remained in with a sniff until matters concluded.

That was partly due to a first senior goal for the 19-year-old Will Lankshear, who celebrated in front of a baying home support but was chastened on the hour by a second yellow card. Dominic Solanke offered an unlikely lifeline later on and, although no leveller was forthcoming, this defeat should have little impact on Tottenham’s chances of reaching the knockout stage.

The chances of a quiet affair had been minimal at the outset and that was before anyone considered an atmosphere that, as Postecoglou had acknowledged, was of the type you play football for. Galatasaray have scored almost three a game in streaking clear atop their domestic league and defeated Elfsborg 4-3 in their previous European game here. The who’s who of attacking talent on show was eye-catching and if Mauro Icardi and Dries Mertens carry whiffs of late-career payday, Osimhen’s summer arrival means they can field one of the best centre-forwards around.

All of them were temporarily put in the shade within five minutes by Akgun, who was loaned last season to Leicester. It was a sumptuous strike; a masterful exhibition of technique that was all the more impressive given Archie Gray seemed to have done enough in heading Gabriel Sara’s free-kick clear. Running around the ball as it bounced up beyond the D, Akgun connected perfectly and sent it roaring into Fraser Forster’s top left corner.

Then, in a moment the youngster will treasure, the hosts’ stars were eclipsed by Lankshear. They had looked likely to turn the screw, Forster clearing in front of Osimhen and Akgun shooting waywardly when attempting a repeat, but were clinically picked apart in two passes. One of them was clipped diagonally by Gray into the path of Brennan Johnson; the next was a volleyed cross that Lankshear, showing a scorer’s instinct, jabbed in from close range.

Spurs were coping without seven absentees and it had hurt Postecoglou’s rotation options that Mikey Moore, the young winger, missed out through illness. Lankshear justified the decision to rest Solanke but they had been swamped until then and Galatasaray soon resumed the onslaught.

Forster denied a clean-through Osimhen, watched as Mertens blasted the rebound wide, and was fortunate to see the Nigerian have a goal chalked off. But Spurs could hardly be accused of making their own luck and were undone again after the half-hour, Radu Dragusin getting his body shape wrong when receiving a routine pass from Ben Davies and allowing Icardi to nick the ball away. It rolled to Mertens, who slid Osimhen in for a toe-ended finish across Forster and unleashed pandemonium again.

Osimhen saw the whites of Forster’s eyes once more but drew another commendable stop. It was becoming a personal battle and almost immediately he struck another blow. Mertens’ right-sided cross was whipped perfectly and, at waist height, Osimhen cushioned a brilliant finish into the far corner to leave Tottenham praying for the break.

How to stem the tide while saving legs? Postecoglou’s answer was to introduce Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski for Johnson and a marginal Son Heung-min, but the pattern continued. Osimhen missed a free header that, in another dimension, might have brought his sixth goal of the game. A fumble by Forster caused a scramble near the line and then Akgun, taking aim again, saw a volley deflected just wide. In the 57th minute Osimhen looked certain to complete his hat-trick at last but Forster, diving the other way, repelled with a trailing foot.

The barrage was constant; the appetite on Galarasaray’s part to sit back negligible. When Lankshear received another sniff, he could not connect sufficiently and the underemployed Fernando Muslera saved easily.

If that was evidence for Lankshear that not everything will come easily, it had nothing on what followed. He had already been booked and then, perhaps in frustration at being dispossessed near halfway, lunged in on Sara and gave the referee, Lawrence Visser, the simplest of calls to make.

Forster swiftly made flying saves from Baris Alper Yilmaz and Akgun. Tottenham had been peppered and it seemed almost farcical when the recently introduced Solanke, cutely backheeling a centre from Pedro Porro, provided hope. It came to nothing, Kulusevski failing to catch Muslera out in added time, but the evening’s entertainment had been bountiful.

Preamble

It is three wins in three for Ange Postecoglou in Europe but this trip to Istanbul is the trickiest of the tests thus far. Galatasaray have seven points in the competition and are undefeated this season, winning nine out 10 matches in the Turkish Super Lig. They possess a glorious array of former Premier League and Serie A talent, mixed with some domestic promise and they will be eager to make a mark in Europe.

Spurs have some injury issues to consider after Cristian Romero and Richarlison were injured in the recent victory over Aston Villa. They are already without Micky van de Ven, so the defence will be tested against Mauro Icardi and Victor Osimhen.

It will be a lively night inside RAMS Park.

Kick-off: 5.45pm GMT.

Less than a year after the World Cup final, I found myself in the Champions League final against Liverpool. In doing so, I became one of a very select band who had played in a Euros final, a World Cup final and then a Champions League final in succession. The day before the match, in Madrid, I ran into Dejan Lovren, the Reds’ defender and my former teammate at Lyon. ‘Hey, Hugo,’ he called out. ‘You got the World Cup, you can let me have the Champions League!’

I did not let him have it. It was snatched from us. The penalty awarded by referee Damir Skomina 24 seconds into the match – when the ball struck Moussa Sissoko’s body and rebounded on to his hand – killed the final and wiped us out. From 2 June 2019, a change in the rules meant that a penalty would no longer follow if the ball struck a player’s hand after touching another part of their body. The final took place on 1 June 2019, and something which wouldn’t have been an offence the following day sealed the fate of the final before it had really begun.

Liverpool contented themselves with putting on a robust defence. As for us, we could only try our luck and dare a little in our play during the last 20 minutes. It was not a great final. I played three finals with Tottenham – two League Cups (2015 and 2021) and one Champions League – in which we didn’t score a single goal. It was so disappointing to have experienced all those emotions and for the adventure to come to an end in such a way. I don’t know if everyone in the club and the team realised how difficult it is to reach a final, and how hard it is to come back from that. I’m not sure we understood that this was perhaps the only chance in our career to win the Champions League; that the club we played for was not one that was programmed to win it; that we could have avoided ever hearing again the complaint that Tottenham never won anything; that our names might have been engraved in the club’s history forevermore. This is what that penalty took from us.

We do all have one engraved memory, though. Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, we would each receive a luxury aviator watch from the club. At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that he’d had the back of each timepiece engraved with the player’s name and ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’. ‘Finalist.’ Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone. If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have ‘Winner’ engraved instead.

I have considerable respect and esteem for the man and all he has done for the club as chairman – I got to know him – but there are things he is simply not sensitive to. As magnificent as the watch is, I have never worn it. I would have preferred there to be nothing on it. With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.

At the post-match reception at the hotel, I had the impression that some people from the club and certain players were not sufficiently despondent at having lost. I would have liked people to come up to me and say, ‘Don’t worry, Hugo. Never again. We’ll give you the means for a comeback.’ But when I returned to my room on the night of the final, I think I had the same feeling as Mauricio and Harry: does the club really want to win? Real Madrid would never have celebrated a lost final, and we shouldn’t have either

Everything was hard after that, for Mauricio and for us. The club had finally invested in recruitment, but we hadn’t got over the Champions League final, and the squad still wasn’t sufficiently revived – and that’s not to mention the tensions that would only grow following a decision by the club which would affect the team’s day-to-day lives; a decision made without the consent of either the squad or the manager: to install cameras everywhere for Amazon’s series about Spurs. In light of the sum mentioned – around ten million pounds – we wondered whether those whose season and activities would be affected, all those being asked to mic-up each day, would get a cut. The answer wasn’t slow in coming: no.

So when the film crew placed little microphones on some of the canteen tables, we went and sat at other ones. We had to be careful all the time. The only place where we could speak freely was the training dressing room – we’d got them to agree that it would remain out of bounds.

Otherwise, they had mics and cameras everywhere – even at some practice sessions, which was no small matter: it was a constraint and it had consequences.

‘We eventually stuck our fingers in our ears’

I found Antonio Conte to be quite a character, driven by victory, which gave him energy, but he found it very hard to control his frustration when we started drawing, let alone losing, because his inner torment had to get out; and if he was tormented, then everyone had to share that torment too, and things could get very complicated very fast.

He told me once that in any given week, his happiness lasted an hour, just after winning, and that was it. In training, he oversaw everything, organising tactical sessions with 10 outfield players against one goalie; but it was hard for the creative players to find their places in his restrictive game-play. The rigidity of the structure and set sequences did us a lot of good at first but, after a few months, teams learned how to play against us and it became tougher to win.

During matches, Conte was as extreme and eruptive as he appeared, garnering respect and fear. Such a strong personality pushed wingers to prefer to play on the side opposite the dugout. I have never forgotten our first defeat under Conte: a 2–1 loss to NS Mura in Slovenia in the Uefa Conference League. Even though I wasn’t playing, I was still entitled to his screams and reproaches, just like everyone else. In squad meetings, we would spend at least 30 minutes a day doing video analysis, not forgetting the interminable preparation camps at our training centre.

After the defeat in Maribor, he had screamed: ‘Mura, Mura, who’s Mura?! We lost to Mura!’ I can still hear him.

If a player needed a little love, he’d better not knock at Conte’s door. For Conte, trust is earned in training. He has no filter; he’s sincere, honest. He’s a manager who lives only by results, whereas from a player’s perspective, performance is important too. That season, when we lost 3–2 to Manchester United (a Ronaldo hat-trick), a result which didn’t reflect our performance, I told Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Harry Kane in the dressing room: ‘They may have just beaten us, but I bet you we finish above them.’ And so we did, ending up in fourth place after battering Arsenal 3–0 on the last day, situating ourselves halfway between Conte’s demanding nature and a little self-management because, by dint of being whipped and screamed at, we eventually stuck our fingers in our ears.

Ange Postecoglou has backed a patched-up squad to handle one of the continent’s most feared cauldrons when Spurs face Galatasaray in the biggest test of their Europa League campaign to date.

Tottenham have three wins from three in the new eight-game format and would almost certainly guarantee at least the safety net of a playoff spot with another victory in Istanbul. But they will be heavily depleted against the Turkish league leaders, who have dropped only two points from 10 domestic games, and the occasion will be a test for the less-experienced members of Postecoglou’s brood. Even if the modern Rams Park does not quite offer the “Welcome to hell” of the old Ali Sami Yen stadium, there are few more intimidating venues.

“I’m sure they’re all looking forward to it,” Postecoglou said of the opportunity to stand tall in front of such intensely partisan support. “That’s why you play football. This generation, a lot of them experienced what football was like without supporters [during the Covid lockdowns] and certainly don’t like that. It’s a fantastic stadium, the supporters create an unbelievable atmosphere here and they love the big European nights.

“[Galatasaray] are a very, very good team, exactly the kind of game you want to be involved in. Whether you’re young or old, irrespective of the role you have you look forward to it.”

The 17-year-old winger Mikey Moore had been pencilled in for his third straight European start but, in a blow to the manager’s efforts to rotate, has a virus and has not travelled. Richarlison, who only returned to action last month, is another casualty after damaging a hamstring in Sunday’s buccaneering win over Aston Villa.

Postecoglou said the Brazilian would “probably be out for a while” and revealed Timo Werner had been carrying a groin problem that precludes his involvement. Another absentee, Cristian Romero, may be fit to return against Ipswich on Sunday while Micky van de Ven, Wilson Odobert and Djed Spence remain sidelined.

Postecoglou talked up Galatasaray’s attacking threat, which was little surprise given their manager, Okan Buruk, can name a strikeforce of Victor Osimhen and Mauro Icardi. In defence he can call on the former Spurs centre-back Davinson Sánchez. A 4-3 win over Elfsborg in their most recent Europa League fixture here spoke of the thrills that may await. “They definitely have a lot of threat in the front third,” the Australian said. “Their attacking players are very, very good individually. They’re a strong team physically so we’re going to have to match the attacking threats they have with the way we play.”

Moore’s illness may mean Brennan Johnson, who might have expected a rest, continues on the right flank with Son Heung-min opposite. The young striker Will Lankshear may start if Postecoglou opts to keep Dominic Solanke fresh. Two goals against Villa highlighted Solanke’s importance and he hopes to build on last month’s return to the England fray when Thomas Tuchel takes over the national side. “I’d love to be there again,” Solanke said. “I worked hard to get back there so it’s definitely an aim of mine to stay there.”

Ange Postecoglou has admitted to feeling “really emotional” after being honoured by three nations on a special night at London’s Australia House.

The Tottenham manager was visibly moved by the Australian High Commission’s one-off celebration on Monday called “An Evening with Ange”, which hailed the England-based coach who, in his own words, “is a product of Greece but made in Australia”.

Surrounded by fellow Australian luminaries at Spurs including Matildas Clare Hunt, Charli Grant and Hayley Raso, Postecoglou said he felt humbled by tributes from Britain’s most senior Australian and Greek diplomats.

It is a sign of just how significant a multi-cultural figure the 59-year-old has become that both Australian High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith and the UK’s Greek ambassador Yannis Tsaousis wanted to salute him with keynote addresses.

“He’s a great football coach, a great Australian, a great human being,” Smith told AAP. “He’s a great multicultural success, representing a great modern, diverse, tolerant country.”

The tributes left Postecoglou reflecting on a remarkable journey that took an Greek immigrant child in Melbourne all the way to one of the world’s biggest football leagues.

“I do very much feel a product of Greece, but made in Australia, and feel really closely connected to both countries,” he told his audience. “I feel very strongly about the journey I’ve had as an immigrant, not so much for myself, but to keep honouring my parents. The sacrifices they made for me to be sitting here tonight means the world to me, so I really want to thank them.”

Postecoglou had the audience, including wife Georgia, laughing as he reflected on how his late father Jim had been his main influence growing up – and how very different he’s turned out.

“It’s not that he passed on any words of wisdom there – because he barely spoke to me. He was a dad of his generation, I never saw him because he was always working for his family,” Postecoglou said.

“You don’t reflect on it at the time, but now I think he wasn’t doing it for himself, he was doing it for the family, so that rubs off on you.”

Asked whether he had always had leadership qualities since his playing days, Postecoglou said: “I was an ordinary player, so we can start with that. I was always kind of in leadership positions. I don’t think I sought that, but people saw me in that kind of light from a very young age.

“I was captain of the club I grew up at [South Melbourne Hellas] from a very young age. I felt comfortable in that, I enjoy that sort of shared vision that you can lead people through. My wife will tell you I don’t like getting told what to do – I’m much more comfortable telling people what to do.”

For the moment, that seems to be working at Spurs.

“I love the fact that I was coming to a massive club with great history, great traditions and a great fan base, but very little recent success,” Postecoglou said. “Because you know that if you can turn it around and bring the club what it wants, I don’t see that as a difficulty, I see that as the beautiful part of the role.”

Behold the new steely, ever-so-slightly more pragmatic version of Angeball. From opting for the powerful runs of Pape Matar Sarr in midfield, to finding the right motivational words when all seemed lost at half-time, this was a good day for Tottenham’s romanticist of a manager. Ange Postecoglou’s tactical choices were right, his substitutions worked and the margin of victory was no more than Spurs deserved after they made light of their latest set-piece wobble and overwhelmed Aston Villa with a stirring second-half display.

It had looked ominous when Villa, who missed the chance to go third, smuggled a lead through Morgan Rogers. By the end, though, Spurs were running riot, James Maddison coming off the bench to add the fourth in added time. Brennan Johnson had scored the equaliser and a touch of class from Dejan Kulusevski had sent Dominic Solanke through to score the first of two quickfire goals. Unai Emery, who had succeeded in squeezing the life out of Spurs in the first half, merely watched in disbelief.

It soon became clear that searching questions were going to be asked about how much Spurs could grind. Postecoglou had adjusted his tactics accordingly, Maddison sacrificed for the double bolt of Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield, but the conditions were far more suited to Villa at first.

Spurs were restricted to hopeful efforts from distance and the crowd’s anxiety was palpable. Everyone could see what Villa wanted to do. They were resolute in their refusal to play into Spurs’ hands. There was no sign of Villa’s signature high line and the sight of Emery repeatedly telling his players to be controlled with his pressing indicated that the Spaniard’s plan was centred around denying Son Heung-min and Johnson space to run clear on the flanks.

It was up to Spurs to respond, to find different angles in attack, and the half played out in predictable fashion. There was a sudden shift after 30 minutes, Villa igniting out of nowhere, a sharp exchange of passes giving Jacob Ramsey room to jink past Pedro Porro and unload a shot that went behind for a corner.

Cue panic. Cue Austin MacPhee, Villa’s set-piece coach getting up to deliver a stream of instructions. The first ball was cleared but it came back to Lucas Digne. He lifted in a high cross, Amadou Onana headed against the woodwork and Spurs just about managed to scramble the ball behind.

The pressure was too great. This time Villa pressed at an obvious weakness, crowding Guglielmo Vicario, Rogers pinning the goalkeeper to his line. Moments later Rogers was slamming the ball in from a yard out, the chance coming his way after Digne’s inswinging delivery had come off Porro and almost gone in off Bentancur.

There was not much conviction on Spurs’ appeals for a foul on Vicario. They knew it was soft. The concession unnerved them and they could have fallen further behind, only for Ollie Watkins to scuff an inviting chance.

It was a pivotal miss. Spurs were out early for the second half, and they were a more intense, more determined proposition. With the pace up a notch, they levelled in the 49th minute, Son’s cross from the left a thing of vicious beauty, Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa taken out of the game as Johnson arrived at the far post to convert.

Emery urged calm. By now, though, the action was frenetic. Solanke had a chance to make it 2-1 but Emiliano Martínez saved well. Porro was booked for scything down Watkins. Cristian Romero injured himself in the process of cleaning out Rogers with a ludicrous challenge.

With Radu Dragusin deputising for the injured Micky van de Ven, Spurs played with their second-choice centre-back pairing after Ben Davies came on for Romero. Emery would soon introduce Jhon Durán on for a limping Rogers. Postecoglou had earlier brought on Richarlison for Son, who did not look particularly impressed with the idea that he was being protected after his recent hamstring issues.

But while Son sat on the bench shaking his head and muttering to himself, Spurs found a second wind. As the minutes ticked away, and as Villa’s legs grew heavy, Davies stepped out to make a robust challenge on Watkins. Then Sarr drove forward, linking with Johnson before Kuluseveski flummoxed Villa with an instant reverse pass to Solanke, running from left to right and cool enough to dink a beautiful effort over Martínez.

The composure was stunning and there was a realisation from Spurs that they would not be best served by trying to shield a 2-1 lead. Instead they went for Villa again, Sarr irrepressible as he intercepted a loose pass from Torres and released Richarlison, who crossed for a gleeful Solanke to score again.

Villa were done. The addition of 10 added minutes merely gave Spurs a chance to add to their haul, an invitation Maddison accepted when he whipped a free-kick past a flat-footed Martínez.

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To be fair to Emery, he inherited a mess.

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Updated at 15.16 CET

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Away we go at the Tottenham Stadium

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Manly hug and banterous laughter between Ange and Unai, two football men and true.

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The teams are in the tunnel, the PA system is revving up and the players hit the field.

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A short word on the dropped word from James Maddison from Ange: “It’s just what we need today. But there’s no doubt that Madders will be coming on today.”

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Unai Emery spoke to Sky: ““My first message I am sending everyone is ‘I want to break our levels always higher’. I am dreaming and I want to work to try and get my dreams.

“My dream is to get the best possible at the club I am at and the targets that we have. To play in Europe, to play in the Champions League - my dream is to be a winner as a coach in the Champions League. Hopefully with Aston Villa.

“The Premier League is very difficult to win because at the moment there are three teams who are being consistent - Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal. But, here Leicester won and when Leicester won the Premier League it was very difficult and maybe impossible. This is the reason in football it is not impossible. You can dream and you can work hard to try and get it.”

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Tottenham full-back Destiny Udogie spoke to Sky: “When you get a win it always changes the mood in the dressing room and adds confidence so we are happy for that win [against Man City] and focused on today’s game.

“Van de Ven is a huge loss for us but we are all together as a team. Villa are a great team, honestly. We’re ready to give our best and hopefully, we are going to win.”

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Villa skipper John McGinn spoke to Sky: ““We’ve got a good recent record in London. It feels nice to be back here but in the last couple of wins here we’ve had to work for it. They’ve probably deserved to win on a couple of those occasions so we need to be ready today.

“To get the three points we need to work, to run. Tottenham make you run a lot so we’re ready to do that. Spurs aren’t an easy team to play against, for most of the league, they’ve had their ups and downs this season but they bring a big threat.

“From our point of view we are quite happy Van de Ven is missing. We need to be at our best, they’re a team that will be competing up the top of the table come the end of the season.”

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Spurs will be full of cheer after their midweek defeat of Manchester City in the Carabao Cup

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Ange makes four changes from the team that lost at Crystal Palace last week, with Son coming back in and James Maddison dropped to the bench. Micky van de Ven misses out with his hamstring problem as Radu Dragusin comes in. Pape Sarr is in ahead of Yves Bissouma and partners Rodrigo Bentancur. Mikey Moore is on the bench and let’s hope to see him off the bench. Last week at Selhurst was no fun for the youngster.

Unai Emery opts for the orthodoxy of Jhon Duran on the bench, and Ollie Watkins starting.

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Updated at 13.57 CET

The starting teams

Tottenham: Vicario, Dragusin, Udogie, Romero, Kulusevski, Johnson, Porro, Sarr, Bentancur, Solanke, Son. Subs: Forster, Davies, Gray, Bissouma, Bergvall, Maddison, Moore, Werner, Richarlison

Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, McGinn, Tielemans, Digne, Torres, Onana, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Maatsen, Carlos, Mings, Kamara, Philogene, Buendia, Bailey, Duran

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Updated at 13.52 CET

Injury list and form guide:

Tottenham

Doubtful Romero (muscle), Son (muscle), Spence (groin), Werner (groin)

Injured Odobert (hamstring, unknown), Van de Ven (hamstring, 23 Nov)

Suspended None

Form LWWLWL

Leading scorer Johnson, Son 3

Aston Villa

Doubtful None

Injured Barkley (muscle, 23 Nov)

Suspended Non

Form WWDDWD

Leading scorer Watkins 5

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Preamble

Should be a good one, this. With Tottenham beating Manchester City in midweek and Aston Villa on such a good run in general, it’s two clubs with optimism flowing through them. Though optimism can be readily punctured at Spurs. And Aston Villa, have won three of their five Premier League matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, including each of the last two, say the stattos. Can Unai Emery outfox Ange-ball? It’s highly possible, you know. Villa can go third in the table if they win, while Spurs can climb to seventh.

Kick-off at 2pm, join me.

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