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Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur to play first north London derby overseas

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Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal will face off in Hong Kong in July for what will be the first north London derby to take place outside of the UK, it was announced on Monday.

The preseason fixture will be played on July 3 at the newly-built Kai Tak Stadium, as part of the Hong Kong Football Festival 2025.

"Everyone at Arsenal is excited to be visiting Hong Kong in July. It's great to be back with our men's first team squad after 13 years, and gives us the opportunity to meet so many of our fantastic supporters in the region again," Arsenal managing director, Richard Garlick said in a statement.

"As well as training hard and playing the match, we cannot wait to connect with our Hong Kong supporters in this wonderful part of the world.

"Playing against Tottenham Hotspur in the magnificent new Kai Tak Stadium will be a great experience for both teams and supporters, and will be a very important part of our pre-season preparations ahead of the new season," Spurs' chief revenue officer Ryan Norys said in a statement.

Tottenham will have an open training session ahead of the match Arsenal.

"There are few bigger occasions in English football than a north London derby and to play this fixture in Hong Kong will be a huge occasion for our passionate fanbase across Asia, as well as providing ideal preparation for the team ahead of the new season.

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Andoni Iraola 'really happy' at Bournemouth amid Spurs links

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Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said he is happy at the south coast side and is hoping to make history at the club as they chase their first major trophy, amid speculation linking the Spaniard with a move to Tottenham Hotspur.

With Spurs languishing 14th in the Premier League after 29 matches and bowing out of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup under boss Ange Postecoglou, Iraola has been touted as a possible option for the north London side if they part ways with the Australian.

The Europa League is Spurs' only hope of winning silverware this season in what would be the club's first trophy since winning the Carabao Cup in 2008.

The 43-year-old Iraola, who joined Bournemouth in June 2023, has helped the club reach the FA Cup quarterfinals, where they will host Manchester City on Sunday. His side are also looking to qualify for European football for the first time and are five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea in 10th spot.

Asked if he can achieve all his management goals at Bournemouth, Iraola told reporters on Friday: "I want to do my job the best I can. I don't know how far we can go, where we will finish. I want to do my job the best I can.

"If I don't do the job very well, they will find someone else. I'm really happy here. We have a great opportunity to make history and it would be amazing for me personally, for the club to achieve new heights, but we know that we have to be realistic.

"There are better teams than us and we have to fight against teams that are very good. We will try to give the best level we have."

Iraola was also asked about 19-year-old centre back Dean Huijsen, whose impressive first season at Bournemouth has generated interest from Real Madrid, a source has told ESPN.

Dutch-born Huijsen made his international debut for Spain against the Netherlands in the first leg of the Nations League quarter-finals on March 20.

"We are not surprised [with the transfer talk], probably because he has now made his national team debut, he has played well, probably they are talking more about him," Iraola said.

"He has been playing consistently and I think he has performed very well. He has faced very difficult forwards but we already knew he was a very good player when he came in the summer."

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Ange Postecoglou: Spurs 'hurt' by lack of 'noise' over referee calls

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Ange Postecoglou has said that he believes there is a lack of "noise" around officiating decisions that go against Tottenham Hotspur in comparison to some of their Premier League rivals and that it "hurts" his team.

The Spurs boss' comments came after referee Andy Madley opted against awarding a penalty for Calvin Bassey's challenge on Lucas Bergvall during the north London club's 2-0 loss at Fulham on Sunday.

Asked about the penalty incident in a post-match news conference, Postecoglou told reporters: "I'll leave that to the officials but I will say that we don't carry on like a lot of other clubs and I think that hurts us for sure.

"I don't think there's ever any noise around us and decisions. We get one slightly in our favour and there's national headlines for a week. Things go against us and there's not even a sentence on it."

Second-half goals from Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon earned the hosts all three points at Craven Cottage and consigned Spurs to a 15th defeat of their Premier League campaign -- a stat which Postecoglou described as "unacceptable."

"I get their [the fans'] disappointment. It's unacceptable to see 15 league defeats. It's nowhere near good enough, nowhere near the level we need to be and I understand the supporters' frustrations with that," Postecoglou said.

"Today wasn't so much about performance, it was just another day when we let a game get away from us that we shouldn't have. We weren't played off the park and I felt that up until the point they scored, we were the team that was getting on top.

"We had a couple of good chances to go 1-0 up and that would have put the pressure on them but it's happened too many times this year. We've given the opposition a lift into the game by conceding soft goals."

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0 Spurs (16 Mar, 2025) Game Analysis

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Substitutes Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon struck late to give Fulham a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday as the Cottagers cut the gap on their rivals for European football next season.

Fulham were far superior in the first half but failed to capitalise as Timothy Castagne wasted their clearest opening when he scuffed a tame effort straight at Guglielmo Vicario.

Spurs, with seven changes from Thursday's 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League, absorbed the pressure and defended well though they offered little going forward.

But Ange Postecoglou's double substitution at halftime, bringing on Son Heung-Min and Lucas Bergvall, had the visitors much improved after the break.

Dominic Solanke twice headed wide before he spurned Spurs' best chance, slicing over from close range after substitute James Maddison chested a parried shot into his path.

"We started really positively, had a couple of really good chances to get in front and we were definitely much better in control," Postecoglou told reporters.

Those Spurs opportunities seemed to revive Fulham and, shortly after Willian shot just wide, Muniz produced a superb first-time finish 12 minutes from time.

Spurs' Wilson Odobert was dispossessed almost immediately after coming on and Antonee Robinson's cross bounced around the penalty box before Muniz swept home his fifth league goal from the bench this season.

Shortly afterwards, Bergvall's shouts for a penalty after a challenge by Calvin Bassey were waved away. Postecoglou said: "I'll leave that to the officiating. I will say, though, that we don't carry on like a lot of other clubs and I think that hurts us for sure."

Fulham academy product Sessegnon, who moved to Spurs in 2019 before returning last July, then scored the second goal of his second spell at Fulham to secure the victory in the 88th minute.

Sessegnon outmuscled Ben Davies and curled an unstoppable shot into the top corner with his weaker right foot, prompting gleeful chants of "he's one of our own."

Fulham's win puts them eighth, with 45 points from 29 games -- three points behind Manchester City in fifth, which could be good enough to qualify for next season's Champions League.

"It puts us right up there for the European spots and it's nice to get a goal as well," Sessegnon told the BBC. He added: "As a team we have one eye [on Europe] and we're taking it game by game, we just need to keep going."

Spurs' 15th league defeat of the season leaves them 13th, with 34 points from 29 games, and their prospects of European football next term depend entirely on winning the Europa League.

But Postecoglou told reporters: "I said to the players, I'm not going to let anyone just think about Europa and nothing else.

"We can't let this league season go the way it has. We've lost way too many games, unacceptable."

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Ange Postecoglou: 'No coincidence' Spurs better with fit squad

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Tottenham Hotspur set up a Europa League quarterfinal matchup with Eintracht Frankfurt with a 3-2 aggregate win over AZ Alkmaar on Thursday, with Ange Postecoglou saying afterwards it is "no coincidence" that his side are improving now they have some key players back from injury.

Two goas from winger Wilson Odobert either side of James Maddison's pinpoint finish secured victory for Postecoglou's side in north London and kept their hopes of winning the club's first trophy in 17 years alive.

An injury crisis that left them without a host of senior players including Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke has contributed to Spurs' dismal Premier League campaign but with several of them having now returned, Postecoglou is eyeing a positive end to the season.

Asked whether the team felt more like themselves, Postecoglou told a post-match news conference: "Yeah, well it's no coincidence. We're getting some of our key players back and of course we are [looking like ourselves]. We've got guys who are getting decent recovery between games and we can change the team a fair bit. Don't forget Sonny [Son Heung-Min] and Madders [James Maddison] didn't start at the weekend.

"We can do these things that allow us to prepare the team properly. We did look more like ourselves but we've still got levels to go, because I still think players like Romero, Micky and Wilson and Dom and all these guys are still building their way up to match fitness and match sharpness.

"With the quarterfinal being three-and-a-half weeks away, there's an opportunity for us to get these guys up to speed for that game."

Odobert's first season at Spurs has been blighted by injury but the French youngster belatedly made his mark with his first goals for the club to send them through at Alkmaar's expense on Thursday.

The 20-year-old's second goal from a counter-attack settled the home jitters after his mix-up with team mate Lucas Bergvall allowed AZ's Peer Koopmeiners to level the aggregate score.

It was quite a night for the Paris Saint-Germain academy graduate who joined Spurs from Burnley in August but who suffered a serious hamstring injury in September that has sidelined him for much of the season.

"Super pleased for him as he's worked awfully hard," Postecoglou said.

"I was excited when we signed him. He's just one of these players who has the ability to take people on, find space and is a great technician.

"He came to a new club this year, big club, a big move for him, and it just hasn't worked out with no fault of his own because of his injury. It's been frustrating for me not to be able to showcase him. I know how much he can develop and that's just a starting point for him."

Information from Reuters contributed to this report

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1 AZ Alkmaar (13 Mar, 2025) Game Analysis

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Tottenham Hotspur advanced to the Europa League quarterfinals 3-2 on aggregate after beating AZ Alkmaar 3-1 in London on Thursday in the second leg of the round-of-16 matchup.

Spurs' season effectively hinged on whether they could overturn a 1-0 deficit against AZ Alkmaar in the third meeting between the sides in this year's competition.

They managed it thanks to two goals by Wilson Odobert, the French youngster's first for the club since joining in August.

Odobert opened the scoring in the 26th minute after a poor clearance by AZ's Wouter Goes and the hosts moved ahead on aggregate three minutes after the break when Son Heung-Min set up James Maddison for a side-footed finish into the corner.

AZ were gifted a way back in to the tie in the 63rd minute when Peer Koopmeiners took advantage of a defensive error to fire a shot past Guglielmo Vicario.

But Odobert struck again in the 74th minute to ease the home jitters, finishing off a flowing Tottenham attack down the left from close range.

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Tottenham's Ange Postecoglou: No regrets over trophy comments

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou said he has no regrets saying he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club as the North London side looks to overturn a first leg deficit at home against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.

With Spurs out of both domestic cups and 36 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, the Europa League is the last chance at silverware for a club who have not won a trophy since 2008.

Postecoglou made the claim having won trophies in his second seasons with Australia's Brisbane Roar, Japan's Yokohama F Marinos and Scotland's Celtic.

But his Spurs side must first beat Alkmaar who lead 1-0 after the first leg in the Netherlands.

"No, no extra pressure. We were obviously disappointed with our performance in the first leg. The important thing is we didn't make the tie impossible for us to get back into, it's still very tight," Postecoglou told reporters on Wednesday.

"They've got the goal advantage but playing at home, if we can play with the intensity and tempo that we did in the weekend [2-2 comeback draw with Bournemouth] then I think we will have an opportunity to progress.

"Should we progress we will have another big challenge in the next round. The focus is to put in a strong performance tomorrow night."

When asked if he had regrets making such a bold statement about winning trophies, Postecoglou said he was simply stating facts.

"I wasn't making anything up, I answered a question. People have used it for their own purposes suggesting I was making a bold claim," he said.

"If that doesn't happen, then I can't say that any more next year, can I?"

Having endured a rollercoaster run in the last three months due to an injury crisis, Postecoglou received a boost with defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero available to start together for the first time since early December.

While Romero played an hour against Bournemouth, Van de Ven came on for the last 30 minutes.

"They got through the game well," Postecoglou said. "Romero, no issues. It was great to get Micky out there. They're both available."

Postecoglou also said he is relying on the club's "leadership group," including goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, to guide Spurs into the quarterfinals.

"You want your experienced players to perform in these kinds of games for sure. We relied a lot on our younger players who have progressed really well," Postecoglou said.

"The likes of Romero, Vicario, [James] Maddison and Sonny [Son Heung-Min] out there -- they are our four leaders. Having all four out there will be beneficial."

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Bournemouth need cutting edge to compete with 'big boys'

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Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said his side must be more clinical if they want to fight with the "big boys" after watching them outplay Tottenham Hotspur but only draw 2-2 in a chaotic Premier League clash on Sunday.

Spaniard Iraola has performed marvels at the south coast club. Two years ago, when Iraola's predecessor Gary O'Neil was in charge, Bournemouth came to Spurs and earned a 3-2 win that was crucial in their battle to avoid relegation.

This time, they arrived knowing victory would put them seventh, one point behind fifth-placed champions Manchester City, and within touching distance of the top four.

Goals by Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson were scant reward for some dazzling Bournemouth football in the balmy spring sunshine and they were made to rue their lack of ruthlessness as Spurs hit back from 2-0 down to grab an undeserved point.

"Before coming here it is probably not a bad result but after how the game went and how well we performed, we are not happy with a point," Iraola, whose side suffered narrow losses to Wolves and Brighton in their last two league games, said of more dropped points.

"We have to win the games when we are the better team and we were the better team. We have to be more clinical and smarter.

"We were winning and we need to kill the game. If we want to fight with the big boys then we need to compete better."

But for Pape Matar Sarr's fortunate goal for Spurs in the 67th minute, shortly after Evanilson had made it 2-0, Bournemouth might have gone on to win by a large margin.

However, goalkeeper Kepa's rush of blood when he took down Son Heung-Min in the area allowed the South Korea international to earn 13th-placed Spurs a point they barely merited.

"The first goal we conceded is a matter of luck but the second one we should do better, defend better, it's a cheap penalty to concede," Iraola said. "I think Son is smart.

"He goes to one side and forces the contact but Kepa gives the referee an option."

For Tottenham it was a error-strewn display that summed up their league season, although they were handed a boost with several first-team players back from the treatment room ahead of Thursday's season-saving Europa League last 16 second leg clash at home to Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.

Central defender Cristian Romero returned after a three-month lay-off but he was rusty and eventually replaced by partner Micky van de Ven who also made a welcome comeback after yet more injury woes.

Striker Dominic Solanke came through unscathed after suffering an injury scare in the 1-0 defeat by Alkmaar in the first leg on Thursday.

"Brilliant to get Micky out there as well. I think before Thursday night that was key for us to get some minutes into these guys and thankfully they got through it unscathed," head coach Ange Postecoglou told reporters.

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2 Bournemouth (9 Mar, 2025) Game Analysis

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Europe-chasing Bournemouth were left kicking themselves as they squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League after outplaying their hosts on Sunday.

Andoni Iraola's side were deservedly two goals up and set to boost their top-four hopes after Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson netted either side of halftime.

Pape Matar Sarr threw Tottenham a lifeline with a speculative cross that looped over Bournemouth goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and the Chelsea loanee then rashly brought down substitute Son Heung-Min in the area with the South Korean converting the resulting penalty in the 84th minute.

Bournemouth, for whom Justin Kluivert had a goal disallowed and hit the post, moved up a place to eighth spot with 44 points, five behind fourth-placed Chelsea, as Tottenham stayed 13th with 34.

If Bournemouth fail to qualify for Europe, they will look back at the last few weeks with bitter memories.

They were knocking on the door of the top four only for defeats by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion to cost them and they should have bagged all three points against a Spurs side booed off by their fans at the break.

They had eight shots on target, double the amount of Spurs, but paid for a lack of ruthlessness.

"We should have put some more chances away but going 2-0 up, we have to see the game out Everyone is disappointed in there but we can't dwell on it too much," Tavernier said.

Tottenham's disappointing season hinges on Thursday's Europa League round-of-16 clash at home to AZ Alkmaar when they will need to overturn a 1-0 deficit.

But they will have to play a lot better than they managed for long periods against Bournemouth.

"At 2-0 we had a bit of a mountain to climb," Ange Postecoglou said. "It was a chaotic game today and the boys showed a real mentality."

They welcomed back defender Cristian Romero after a three-month absence and handed him the captaincy but his awful pass after 30 seconds almost gifted Evanilson a goal, his shot superbly saved by Guglielmo Vicario.

Vicario saved his side again as another error almost led to a Bournemouth goal.

Bournemouth took the lead in the 42nd minute when yet another misplaced pass by the hosts, this time from Pedro Porro, saw Milos Kerkez surge down the left and produce a sublime cross that Tavernier volleyed in at the back post.

A sensational counter-attack early in the second half saw Kluivert finish in style from Tavernier's cross but a VAR check showed that Antoine Semenya was offside in the build-up.

Evanilson did double Bournemouth's lead with a deft finish from Kluivert's pass and the visitors were cruising.

Impressive substitute Lucas Bergvall struck the post for Spurs before Sarr's errant cross which floated over Kepa's head changed the complexion of the game.

Even then Bournemouth were still the better side but Kepa's eager rush form his goal saw him take down Son who calmly tucked away the spot-kick.

"We need to be more efficient because big teams find a way to win," Iraola said. "We have to be demanding with ourselves. It's shame not to get the points we deserve."

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