talkSPORT

Wojciech Szczesny may have left Arsenal seven years ago - but he remains a firm fan favourite at the Emirates.

The 34-year-old came through the club's famous Hale End academy, where he made 181 appearances - winning two FA Cups.

His breakthrough season came in the 2010/11 campaign, where he capitalised on injuries to Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski to establish himself as the Gunners' No.1.

And while he was partly at fault for Obafemi Martins' dramatic winner in the League Cup final in February 2011, he quickly endeared himself to the Arsenal faithful.

Szczesny, who has recently joined Barcelona on a deal until the end of the season, flattened Gareth Bale twice - much to the delight of Gooners.

His first north London derby against Tottenham came in April 2011, and he certainly left a lasting impression - on both fans and Bale.

Both incidents involving the two players came in the first half of the six-goal thriller at White Hart Lane, which finished honours even at 3-3.

Their first tussle came in the 37th minute as Bale looked to get on the end of a bouncing ball inside the box - only for Szczesny to come out and claim it.

But in doing so, he left Bale on a heap in the floor after making contact with the Welshman as he jumped high above him, before accidentally elbowing his head after landing on the forward.

It forced a delay in stoppage with the winger requiring medical attention, who he would also need just before half-time.

In the second incident - which lives long in the memory of Arsenal fans - Szczesny reacted brilliantly to deny Bale from getting on the end of a pass.

Rafael van der Vaart, who scored twice in the encounter to rescue a point for Spurs, floated the ball in beyond Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna.

Out like a flash having sensed the danger, Szczesny sprinted to palm the ball away for a throw-on just as Bale looked to shoot - completely wiping him out in the process.

It saw Bale somersaulting over the Poland international following the coming together, where he landed on his head, leading to huge appeals from the Spurs fans for a penalty.

Knowing he got the ball, Szczesny calmed walked back to his goal where he gave teammate Johan Djourou a wry smile and cheeky wink.

It was the moment that cemented himself as an Arsenal cult hero.

While Szczesny was accidentally whacked by Bale as the duo went for the ball, it was the latter who came out second best.

For the second time in under ten minutes, the Spurs medics were out on the pitch to tend to the former Southampton starlet.

A stretcher was even brought on, though Bale was able to gingerly walk off following the half-time whistle.

But he failed to make it out for the second half, which saw Arsenal fail to hold onto their lead in what was a typically classic end-to-end north London derby.

After Szczesny riled up the Spurs faithful following his hefty collisions with Bale, he began to make it a regular occurrence by winding them up on social media.

Following Arsenal's 1-0 win over Tottenham in September 2013, he shared a video of himself playing the piano to the tune of 'When the Saints Go Marching In'.

The tune is used for Spurs' famous chant, with Arsenal fans having their own version referencing their two league title wins won on enemy soil.

Even during his loan spell at Roma in 2016, he mocked Spurs following their 5-1 defeat at Newcastle on the final day of the season, which saw Arsenal pip them to second spot.

It meant that Arsenal finished above their rivals in the league for the 21st consecutive season.

This time uploading a video of himself singing, Szczesny chanted: 'It’s happened again, it's happened again, Tottenham Hotspur, it's happened again."

Even after his permanent Arsenal exit in 2017 to Juventus, he still couldn't help but poke fun at Tottenham.

After the Old Lady knocked Spurs out of the Champions League in 2018, he gestured to the fans to 'keep their chins up', before posting 'North London is Red' on X.

While Szczesny may never have lived up to his full potential at Arsenal, he will be forever remembered fondly.

And he's living proof that you may take the man out of Arsenal, but you can never take the Arsenal out of the man.

Ryan Mason is staying at Tottenham after holding talks with Anderlecht over becoming their manager, talkSPORT understands.

Mason, assistant coach at Spurs, and Anderlecht decided mutually not to proceed with his potential appointment.

Mason was one of the club’s leading names to succeed Brian Riemer after Dutchman Mark van Bommel dropped out of the running.

Mason, who had had a stint as interim Tottenham head coach in 2021 following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho, became the youngest manager to take charge of a Premier League game aged just 29 and led Spurs to a seventh-placed finish in the 2021/22 campaign.

Anderlecht are currently fourth in the Belgian league but parted ways with Dutch boss Reimer last month.

The move would have seen Mason become the second former Tottenham midfielder to manage in Belgium following Scott Parker’s ill-fated six-month spell at Club Brugge in 2023.

It would have also seen him reunited with former Spurs teammate Jan Vertonghen who joined the club from Benfica in 2022.

Mason came through the ranks at the north-London club and made his debut in 2008 before undergoing loan spells at various club’s including Yeovil, Doncaster, Millwall and French club Lorient.

In 2016, he made a £13million switch to Hull City however his career came to a premature end when he suffered a fractured skull in a collision with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill.

Thankfully, Mason recovered but was forced to hang up his boots on medical advice.

Tottenham handed Mason the opportunity to carve out a coaching career by appointing him as a youth coach before later taking up the role of head of the club’s academy.

Following the sacking of first-team boss Jose Mourinho in 2021, he was given the reins as interim boss with his first game being a 1-0 League Cup final defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.

Mason has since continued his coaching development with stints working under Antonio Conte as well as his current role as part of Ange Postecoglou’s backroom team.

The 33-year-old is highly regarded in coaching circles but has yet to secure a permanent managerial role.

Troy Deeney has revealed just how close he came to joining Tottenham.

It was the summer of 2020 and Watford had just been relegated after five years in the Premier League.

Deeney had scored 47 goals in 165 Premier League matches for the Hornets, but at the age of 32 and facing a return to the EFL, the striker was met with a surprise opportunity.

The striker was linked with surprise moves to Arsenal and Tottenham, not only giving the chance to play in the top flight again, but also the opportunity to experience Europa League football.

Reflecting on the interest, Deeney was aware that he was never going to be a regular starter, but spoke of how such an opportunity would have been too good to turn down.

Asked if he spoke to Mikel Arteta or Jose Mourinho directly, Deeney told talkSPORT.com: "No, not Arteta. I had a chat with Mourinho but he wanted the boy, Carlos Vinicius.

"I didn't speak to Arteta, that was more of a board-level discussion and how could we make it happen.

"Obviously because I wasn't going to start at any of these places, it was like 'yeah, no problem, as long as he's not a d*** basically'.

"With Mourinho, they wanted the striker, Carlos Vinicius,

"So he was their main target, and if that doesn't happen, then we'll bring Troy in.

"I had a chat with him, and it was like, what do you want to do? How do you want to do it? Would you be able to go from being a main man to one of the squad?

"Obviously I was the main man at Watford, and I was captain and I said 'look, if I get the opportunity to play, then I'll play'.

"Do you remember the big Spanish striker that went there from Swansea [Fernando Llorente]? He kept scoring didn't he, every time, in the League Cup and I thought if I can do that, my job's good.

"I said, all I'm going to do is push Harry [Kane] to be the best that he can, and be his biggest cheerleader because playing for Spurs was massively beyond my dreams."

Unfortunately for Deeney, Tottenham pressed ahead with their move to sign Vinicius with the Brazilian striker joining on a season-long loan deal with the option of a £36million move.

He only managed one Premier League goal and also scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Marine.

However, he didn't do enough to earn a move and found himself on loan at PSV Eindhoven the next season, before eventually joining Fulham.

Vinicius is now on loan at Galatasaray from the Cottagers.

As for Arsenal, they opted not to sign a striker that summer but did bring in Willian on a free transfer to bolster their attacking options.

For Deeney, he spent one final season with Watford and scored seven goals in 19 games to help the Hornets to promotion in an injury-hit campaign.

He left the club in 2021 as their fourth-highest goalscorer of all-time and their top goalscorer in Premier League history.

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Tottenham assistant coach Ryan Mason is in line to become the new manager at Belgian giants Anderlecht, talkSPORT understands.

Mason is one of the club’s leading names to succeed Brian Riemer after Dutchman Mark van Bommel dropped out of the running.

Mason, who had had a stint as interim Tottenham head coach in 2021 following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho, could be set to land his first managerial role, six-and-a-half years after hanging up his boots.

He became the youngest manager to take charge of a Premier League game aged just 29 and led Spurs to a seventh-placed finish in the 2021/22 campaign.

Anderlecht are currently fourth in the Belgian league but parted ways with Dutch boss Reimer last month.

The move would see Mason become the second former Tottenham midfielder to manage in Belgium following Scott Parker’s ill-fated six-month spell at Club Brugge in 2023.

It would also see him reunited with former Spurs teammate Jan Vertonghen who joined the club from Benfica in 2022.

Mason came through the ranks at the north-London club and made his debut in 2008 before undergoing loan spells at various club’s including Yeovil, Doncaster, Millwall and French club Lorient.

In 2016, he made a £13million switch to Hull City however his career came to a premature end when he suffered a fractured skull in a collision with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill.

Thankfully, Mason recovered but was forced to hang up his boots on medical advice.

Tottenham handed Mason the opportunity to carve out a coaching career by appointing him as a youth coach before later taking up the role of head of the club’s academy.

Following the sacking of first-team boss Jose Mourinho in 2021, he was given the reins as interim boss with his first game being a 1-0 League Cup final defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.

Mason has since continued his coaching development with stints working under Antonio Conte as well as his current role as part of Ange Postecoglou’s backroom team.

The 33-year-old is highly regarded in coaching circles but has yet to be afforded the opportunity to showcase his talents.

A move to Anderlecht would see Mason handed his first taste of European football with Anderlecht boasting two wins from two Europa League games.

Simon Jordan and Martin Keown were embroiled in a feisty debate on talkSPORT about Tottenham's issues under Ange Postecoglou.

Spurs experienced a dramatic collapse on Sunday as they fell to a 3-2 defeat away at Brighton, despite holding a two-goal lead at half-time, and Arsenal legend Keown couldn't resist a pop at his old rivals.

Postecoglou described the loss as the club's 'worst' of his tenure in north London and hinted at a problem with the players' menatlity.

Jordan and Keown were discussing the Spurs boss on White and Jordan the following morning, with his set-piece struggles a topic of conversation.

However, it was Keown's reference to the Gunners that was a cause for things to get heated in the talkSPORT studio.

"Now I think he has to be perfect in everything he does," said the three-time Premier League winner with the Gunners.

"There are some teams now... if you look at it back in the day, the teams that played direct football, percentage football, you're going to say your Boltons and your Wimbledons..."

"And they got vilified," said Jordan, before Martin continued: "They were very good at set-pieces. But now, the best team at set-pieces is one of the teams that actually plays the best football, Arsenal. So what you need to do is you need to invest first in class for every area."

"How did you shoe Arsenal into this conversation?" Jordan asked after expressing bemusement on his face, but Keown defiantly responded: "Because it's a fact!

"So what he [Postecoglou] needs to do is, if his rivals or the other teams or competitions in that division are doing better in that area, he has to do better himself. He has to spend more time on the training pitch..."

"But they've been given latitude to build, Jordan interrupted. "They didn't start like this.

"Arsenal didn't start like this, [Mikel] Arteta didn't turn your library into a cheering fanbase, it took him some time do to it, so you've got to give people a degree of ability to change the culture."

Later on in the discussion, host Jim White read a message from a Spurs listener: "Is Martin not forgetting how long it's taken Arteta to build this Arsenal team?

"Shut up Martin, you're an Arsenal cheerleader."

Jordan and Keown then resumed their argument, with the ex-Gunner saying: "We're talking about a football club changing a culture."

However, Jordan wasn't having it and replied: "And we're talking about your club who haven't won a league in 20 years, so shut up!"

"Yeah but we've won trophies," Keown insisted before adding: "We're winning football matches."

However, the talkSPORT duo did finally see eye-to-eye as Jordan agreed with Keown when he said: "I'm talking about there being no balance in his team.

"If he [Postecoglou] strikes a balance, they can be successful, but the manager has to step out of his ego and say, 'Right, OK, we haven't got to win this 6-0, we just need to win it 2-0.'"

Spurs have now lost three of their opening seven Premier League matches of the season and are ninth in the table.

Their form outside of the top flight has been more impressive, though, as they currently sit third in the Europa League with two wins from two.

Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham's 3-2 defeat to Brighton is the worst of his tenure as head coach.

Spurs were cruising to victory at the halfway point of Sunday's clash at the Amex Stadium thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison. But somehow, they left empty-handed.

Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck scored within 21 minutes of the restart to seal a stunning Brighton turnaround.

Defeat is Postecoglou's 17th from 51 matches across all competitions since he took charge last summer.

The scoreline was not as bad as their heaviest loss, 4-0 away at Newcastle last season, but he'll be keen to forget this one in a hurry.

"Yeah, that's disappointing," he told Sky Sports following a contrasting performance level in the first and second halves of the match.

"I'm frustrated, I'm absolutely gutted with that, it's probably the worst defeat we've had since I've been here.

"Unacceptable second half, we weren't anywhere near where we should be, maybe we just got carried away with how we were going."

When asked if there was a problem with his side's mentality, he said: "Yeah I think so.

"Second half, I just don't think... we kind of accepted our fate, which is a bit hard to understand because we haven't done that since I've been here, we've usually followed through everything.

"But when you don't, you pay a price and we paid the price."

Spurs have also made unwanted history with Sunday's result as they are the first ever Premier League side to lose ten matches when taking a 2-0 lead.

The record-breaking result left former Spurs star Dimitar Berbatov dumbfounded.

"Is it possible Spurs were telling themselves at half-time they won the game?" Berbatov asked the rest of the panel on Sky Sports.

"Is that also a possibility? Coming from us [Berbatov, Les Ferdinand and Steve Sidwell] who used to play the game.

"Maybe they were thinking it was going to be easy in the second half.

"They maybe underestimated Brighton a bit and that was probably the mistake as well, as in the second half Spurs weren't there.

"From the first half, it was gone, and we were watching here in disbelief, like what is going on?"

Although the result against Brighton is only the first time this has happened under Postecoglou, fans will undoubtedly be worried.

They have lost for the third time in the Premier League this season, with Newcastle and north London rivals Arsenal the other teams to get the better of them.

In comparison, Spurs were unbeaten at this stage of last season and didn't fall to defeat until November when they lost 4-2 to Chelsea.

They sit ninth in the table on ten points and will now have to wait two weeks to provide a response due to the international break.

Spurs will host London rivals West Ham on Saturday 19 October, live on talkSPORT, in a bid to revive their chances of European qualification.

Brennan Johnson has equalled Harry Kane's near six-year scoring record for Tottenham with his latest goal against Brighton.

The 23-year-old fired in for Spurs on 23 minutes from a Dominic Solanke through-ball moments after they had a goal ruled out for offside.

Johnson was in excellent form for the north London side prior to the weekend's trip down to the south coast, scoring five goals in five.

He has now extended this to six in six appearances in all competitions, matching club legend Kane in the process.

The striker was the last Spurs player to net in successive games in January 2019, doing so across three different competitions.

Of his seven strikes, five of them came in the Premier League, with the other two were netted in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Johnson has scored three in the league and another in the Carabao Cup, and his other two finishes have been in the Europa League.

The former Nottingham Forest man's first came late on in their 2-1 Carabao Cup away at Coventry City before the second was scored at home against Brentford.

Qarabag were the next opponents to concede to Johnson in the Europa League ahead of his opener for Spurs in their 3-0 win at Manchester United.

Goal number five was scored against Ferencvaros, with Johnson firing on all cylinders in his second season at the club and surpassing his goal tally of five from the previous campaign.

Spurs' evening got even better in the 37th minute as James Maddison fired the ball through Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen after receiving a pass from Timo Werner.

Ange Postecoglou's side have responded well to their back-to-back league defeats against Arsenal and Newcastle by scoring 12 goals in six matches.

However, Brighton pulled a goal back just moments into the second-half via a Yankuba Minteh finish from inside the area.

The Seagulls then turned the match on its head when Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck scored within eight minutes of each other.

Brighton held on to complete the remarkable comeback to take them to sixth in the Premier League, with Spurs below them in tenth.

Former Tottenham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga was Girona's penalty-saving hero on three occasions in one match.

The 32-year-old completed a move to LaLiga last summer following a spell at Fulham, initially joining the club on loan.

Gazzaniga made his ninth league start of the season for Girona on Sunday when they hosted Athletic Bilbao at Estadi Montilivi.

Although he was unable to keep a clean sheet in a 2-1 win, the ex-Spurs man showcased his quality when facing three Bilbao penalties.

The first came in the opening 45 minutes against Alex Berenguer, with Gazzaniga saving down low to his left.

Inaki Williams was next to miss for Bilbao although the penalty had to be retaken as the Girona goalkeeper went off his line too early.

However, the visitors were denied form 12 yards once again as Ander Herrera also saw his effort saved by Gazzaniga.

It was an excellent performance in goal from the Argentine as he helped seal a crucial win for Girona with Cristhian Stuani scoring a stoppage-time penalty to seal all three points.

Gazzaniga started his career in Valencia's academy before making the move to England in 2011 to sign with League Two side Gillingham.

After just one season, he completed a switch to Southampton after their promotion to the Premier League.

He made just 23 appearances across all competitions though for the Saints though and departed in 2017 for Spurs.

Gazzaniga had a lot more game time in north London, especially in the 2019/20 season as he made 18 Premier League appearances whilst Hugo Lloris was out injured.

But the goalkeeper eventually moved across the capital in 2021 to Fulham and helped them seal an instant return to the Premier League.

He featured just 15 times during his spell at Craven Cottage and first joined Girona on loan in 2022, with his move becoming permanent a year later.

Gazzaniga's appearance on Sunday was his 76th for the club across three seasons and could well be his best yet.

Ange Postecoglou reserved high praise for his four teenage stars but quickly dismissed the proposed ‘Ange’s Angel’s’ tagline.

The Tottenham boss was delighted after his young line up showed no fear in Thursday’s 2-1 Europa League victory at Hungarian side Ferencvaros.

Goals from Pape Matar Sarr and a fifth-consecutive goal for Brennan Johnson ensured Spurs continued their 100 per cent start to the competition.

Postecoglou handed full debuts to academy stars Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear and both combined to set up Sarr’s 23rd-minute opener.

Summer signings Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray were also given spots in the starting XI and Postecoglou was delighted with the quartet’s contributions.

However, when asked whether the youngsters could adopt the name Ange’s Angels in a similar fashion to the Busby Babes and Fergie’s Fledglings, Postecoglou laughed: “No, no, no, you’ve got to do better than that. No chance.

“The first thing is that they’re part of our first team squad, not because I want some young players, it’s because they’ve earned that spot.

“Then it’s about how to help them develop and the moments we need to put them in there, the moments we need to hold off. And we can’t discount the fact that Archie is 18, Lucas is 18.

“I thought Archie was brilliant. We asked him to play in two different positions and it’s incredible how he just adjusts and he’s able to bring his game to wherever we put him.

“Lucas worked hard and Will was unlucky with a couple of moments when we could have got a goal.

“These guys are there because they’ve earned their spot but they’re an important part of our development.

“Whilst we want to be a team that has an impact this year, it’s like I said before, it’s important we’re developing players along the way so that whatever sort of period of potential for success or opportunity for success exists, it’s elongated because of the young players you got through.”

Postecoglou reserved special praise for 17-year-old Moore who is viewed as a huge prospect for the future.

Moore became Tottenham’s youngest-ever Premier League appearance maker in May when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in the game against Manchester City.

“I thought Mikey was outstanding. It’s brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90-plus minutes in a European away tie,” Postecoglou said.

“He just handled it superbly, I kind of knew he would and I think it’ll help his growth as a footballer once you get through an experience like that.

“I think he’ll grow and evolve and I didn’t feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.

“If you look at the Premier League, how many 17-year-olds are actually contributing and Mikey is already, which shows that he’s got something special but we’ve just got to be really careful about how we develop that.”