The New York Times

With pressure mounting on Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach will have been relieved with three points over Southampton, a result that relegated the visiting side.

There was a risk that facing the Premier League’s bottom side, who only have 10 points this season, could have caused an embarrassing afternoon for Spurs, as Leicester City did when they won here in January. And while two goals from Brennan Johnson and a first Premier League goal for Mathys Tel sealed victory, conceding late and struggling to kill the game off in the second half will have done little to appease those disappointed with Postecoglou’s side.

There was a pre-match protest outside the ground against the ownership, as well as chants within the stadium, as anger at how the club is run continues. Following the defeat to Chelsea and this victory, Spurs can now plan for Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday with Lucas Bergvall and Johnson performing well.

Here, Elias Burke and George Caulkin break down the action from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

How did Spurs fans react to Levy and Postecoglou?

Tottenham remain a club at unease with itself.

Barely 20 seconds had passed before the South Stand began a chant of “We want (Daniel) Levy out.” Not for the first time this season, there had been a demonstration by hundreds of supporters down the Seven Sisters Road where a banner was held up which read, “Built a business, killed a football club.” It was also displayed inside the stadium before kick-off and again at half-time.

With Postecoglou denying suggestions he had goaded fans who had sung, “You don’t know what you’re doing” at him during Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea — he had cupped an ear with his hand — the feeling remains that Spurs are teetering on a precipice. Whether they topple or pull back will probably be determined by their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

In that context, victory over Southampton — who have only won once in the Premier League since early November — proved very little. Against hapless opponents, whose relegation was confirmed, they were far too strong, but at least it provides them with some precious momentum.

No dissent was aimed at Postecoglou and there was none in return. Why would there be? When the first goal went in, the head coach called over James Maddison to give him instructions. The second brought smiles and high-fives with his coaching staff.

George Caulkin

A five-minute VAR check?

Lucas Bergvall thought he had scored his first Premier League goal in the first half… before VAR intervened.

Not that Postecoglou needed any more convincing that VAR is negatively affecting the flow of football matches, but a five-minute-and-25-second wait, according to Opta, between Bergvall volleying into the back of the net and referee Michael Salisbury restarting the game won’t help in easing his frustration.

During the wait, Postecoglou strolled around his technical area and signalled to his coaching staff, making fun of the delay. While Spurs and Southampton fans collaborated in a rendition of “f*** VAR” and boos rang around the stadium, the 59-year-old shrugged his shoulders and pretended to play rock, paper, scissors, suggesting a randomness to the procedure.

Postecoglou spoke against VAR in the post-match conference after the Chelsea defeat, where that night’s video assistant referee, Jarred Gillet, recommended referee Craig Pawson check the pitchside monitor before disallowing Pape Matar Sarr’s second-half goal after a lengthy check.

In this case, the goal was chalked off as Cristian Romero was found to be offside before heading the ball down to Bergvall in the box.

Elias Burke

What did Spurs learn before Frankfurt tie?

As European quarter-final tune-ups go, this was about as straightforward as it gets for Tottenham.

Postecoglou made three changes from the side that were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea on Thursday, with building momentum for the season-defining tie against Frankfurt a key consideration. Johnson, who came in for Wilson Odobert, has struggled to make an impact since scoring twice against Ipswich Town in February but made a strong case for selection on Thursday. He scored his 10th and 11th league goals of the season in the first half, the first after a sweeping “Ange-ball” style passage started by an incisive pass from Romero.

Postecoglou will also be encouraged by the performance of Bergvall, who was taken off at the hour mark against Chelsea, with the head coach citing a lack of physicality after leaving international duty early with illness.

Against Southampton, the Swede was dominant, driving through the midfield and reacting quickly to loose balls.

While Southampton offered little resistance, there was a creativity in midfield that has often been absent in recent weeks. Maddison, who was poor in the first leg against AZ before propelling Spurs to victory with a goal in the second, was instrumental in both goals today.

It’s unlikely Frankfurt will roll over as easily, but if a lack of confidence was an issue ahead of that match, this should at least be a welcome boost on that front.

Elias Burke

What did Postecoglou say?

Speaking after the match, Postecoglou said: “I was really happy with the first half. I thought first half we were really disciplined, well organised, we limited them to one chance. I thought every time we went forward we looked dangerous. We were threatening, probably as threatening as we’ve looked for quite a while — really fluent. Obviously scored two goals, one got disallowed. Aaron (Ramsdale) pulled off two good saves. Really pleased.

“Second half, not so much. I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of a rhythm, and then really sloppy with the ball. The substitutions that we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted to. That allows them to get a goal. So that was disappointing, something we need to improve on. But overall, I think the important thing is that we got the win and three goals. Everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.”

What next for Spurs?

Thursday, April 10: Eintracht Frankfurt (Home), Europa League quarter-final first leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET

Recommended reading

Ange Postecoglou thinks not enough external voices defend Spurs – is he right?

The moment Postecoglou picked a fight with Tottenham fans – and it didn’t pay off

Where Cristian Romero goes, drama follows. What’s lies ahead for him at Spurs?

Fabio Paratici’s contacts and charisma will still appeal to Milan, Tottenham and more

(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 loss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday didn’t surprise many, but it added to a miserable season for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

They sit 14th in the Premier League table, 10 points off the top half and 17 points behind Manchester City in fifth. For much of the season, Tottenham’s injury crisis was used to justify their poor league form, but even with many key players back, Postecoglou has still struggled to get a tune out of his side.

On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, Danny Kelly, Jay Harris and Jack Pitt-Brooke discussed whether Tottenham are simply just a below-par team this season.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on The View from the Lane feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Danny: Jack, let me pull the pin out of the hand grenade and pass it over to you. There are statistics you can produce here, or you can talk about the eye test. Are we just deluding ourselves? Are we just watching a rotten football team?

Jack: This is just a bad team that has occasionally had good days. It doesn’t hold water anymore to say they’re a good but flawed team. Good but flawed teams don’t lose 16 out of 30 league games. They’re a bad side who are capable of having very good days.

A lot of what we saw against Chelsea, we saw away to Fulham, we saw in the first half against Bournemouth, we saw away to AZ, and also in the home game against Man City. They’ve lost a lot of their intensity without the ball. They didn’t make things difficult at all for Chelsea. It was incredible how many times Chelsea could knock the ball forward, then, all of a sudden, Cole Palmer or Nicolas Jackson would have a ridiculous amount of space to run straight through the middle of the pitch. There was no resistance at all from Tottenham.

It was so easy for Jadon Sancho to get one-on-one against Djed Spence, who was having to backpedal all the time just to stay afloat. Then, when Spurs got the ball, they had no idea what to do with it. There were no patterns. They didn’t use Dominic Solanke properly. They never released Son Heung-min or Wilson Odobert into good positions. Occasionally, Destiny Udogie or Spence would run forward with the ball, but then it would all stop and they would knock the ball out of play. It felt like it took about 40 minutes for James Maddison or Son to touch the ball.

It was really bad. And bad in a way that was generally familiar with what we’ve seen this season. This is not a team that’s going anywhere.

Danny: Jay, I thought your head was going to fall off you were nodding so vigorously there…

Jay: There are a couple of things I wanted to highlight.

Like Jack said, this is just not a particularly good football team. The injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team already playing quite badly. But you hoped to be proven wrong and that when players came back, we would see the shoots of progress.

Looking at the last month or so, when those players have been back, nothing’s really changed. They’re still performing just as miserably as they were before.

The other element is that the team did lose a bit of their composure and discipline against Chelsea. Sergio Romero getting booked for going up to Levi Colwill is just so silly. All because he and Colwill were tussling with each other at a corner 20 minutes before. You don’t need to get involved. All that does is whip up the crowd at Stamford Bridge even more and adds to the intensity. That’s when you need Son, Guglielmo Vicario, Maddison and the other leaders to calm the team down, remain composed, and ignore all that nonsense.

They just allowed themselves to get wound up. Even Pedro Porro, when he screamed at the linesman, it was so unnecessary. You could really see signs of the tension that these players are feeling.

You can listen to full episodes of The View from the Lane free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

In the wake of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp did not hold back in his assessment of his former club and their head coach.

“If they weren’t still in Europe, I don’t think he’d still be the manager,” Redknapp said on Sky Sports’ post-match broadcast. “They’ve been that poor. He knows the price of the ticket. You don’t lose 16 games at a club like Tottenham. Yes, they’ve had injuries, but that’s not good enough.

“He’s got to win the (Europa League). If they win the cup, they’re creating history. If they don’t win it, they will be history. It’s all or nothing for Ange Postecoglou. They are capable because they’ve got the players to do it, but they need the spirit.”

That sentiment was echoed by fellow former Spurs player Jamie O’Hara, who said, “There’s no men, there are no leaders, it’s just they’re out there, they’re playing for themselves, and the manager looks lost on the sideline,” in reaction to the result and performance. Incidentally, it was in response to a jibe by Chelsea fan Jason Cundy, his co-host on TalkSport’s The Sports Bar radio show, who made 28 league appearances for Spurs in the 1990s.

Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling support after Postecoglou replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Matar Sarr reflect the frustration bubbling around the club, with very little relief for a head coach who is presiding over a historically poor Premier League season.

Still, the 59-year-old suggests he should have more help in calming the hostility.

“I think a lot of it is how the club is viewed externally,” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “It seems like every fight, like I said, ends up being an internal fight for this club. There’s never any defending of the club or the club defending itself, it seems to me, which makes it even more difficult. Because whenever the club goes through tough moments, it’s how you react to them.

“(The club could defend itself) by being more vocal. I think you hear enough from me. You probably hear too much from me, to be honest. I think it doesn’t have to be just from people at the club. I hear plenty of people talking and defending other clubs, but it seems like with Tottenham, wherever there’s a sore, there’s a little pile-on to stick a finger in that sore. Then we kind of accept our fate.“

Postecoglou may have a point. Certainly, among the most prominent broadcasters in the United Kingdom, there aren’t many pundits who have played for Spurs or hold friendly sentiments towards the club.

It wouldn’t take long to reel off a list of Manchester United, Arsenal, or Liverpool legends who are frequently featured on British television screens, often reflecting on trophies won and success at those clubs. The Spurs angle, however, is often thrown to ex-players better known for spells elsewhere, such as Redknapp or less recognisable faces.

The issue runs deep. Boyhood fan Roy Keane’s most famous Spurs-related quote was remembering former United manager Alex Ferguson dismissing the club ahead of a match, saying, “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”

Finding those Spurs voices is part of the problem. Many players who enjoyed success at White Hart Lane under Mauricio Pochettino are still playing, and those who have retired, such as Mousa Dembele, are unlikely to become regular pundits on British television. Excluding Gareth Bale, the likes of Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, and Robbie Keane are the most high-profile players of Harry Redknapp’s era who fit the bill. Currently, Keane is the head coach of Ferencvaros in Hungary, Defoe is pursuing a career in coaching, and Crouch is more closely associated with Liverpool, with whom he reached the Champions League final.

Still, the central reason ex-Spurs players do not seem to dominate the British media discourse is simple: they didn’t win enough. Take the Sky Sports Overlap crew, for instance. Keane won 12 major trophies at Old Trafford, Gary Neville lifted 17. Ian Wright won the Premier League. Jamie Carragher won the Champions League. In addition to their skill and experience in front of a camera, they are respected for what they have won as players.

Outside of those three clubs, there’s a general underrepresentation across the league. Newcastle are fortunate that Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s record goalscorer and former England captain, just so happens to be a boyhood fan and club legend. Now Frank Lampard is back in management, the most active Chelsea-affiliated pundit is… Joe Cole? Even four-time defending league champions Manchester City lack comparative representation to Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who dominate the discourse.

It’s not their job to defend the club, either. The strong United cohort, almost entirely comprised of dominant sides under Ferguson, has not shied away from criticising the club, players and managers when results have been poor. Even with Liverpool running away with the league title, Carragher has been forthright with his opinions on how Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have dealt with their contract discussions, prompting criticism from supporters and creating awkward moments with the players on broadcasts. Had Liverpool lost 16 league matches this season, Carragher would inevitably come down hard on Arne Slot, too. It is no surprise, then, that Glenn Hoddle, one of Spurs’ greatest-ever players, is occasionally critical of his former club on commentary.

Rewind to the start of last season and Postecoglou was fast becoming a darling of the British media. His direct and succinct communication style endeared him to Premier League fans, bringing fresh air to how managers interacted with media members. The football was great, too, with fans and pundits praising his attacking philosophy after Antonio Conte and Nuno Espirito Santo.

Crucially, though, Spurs were winning. Now, they’re 14th after 30 games, level on points with Everton and Wolves in 15th and 16th, having lost more than half of their games. Regardless of who is in the studio or the gantry, that form is difficult to defend.

(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

You can pinpoint the exact moment when Ange Postecoglou’s relationship with the Tottenham Hotspur fans was left hanging by a thread.

There were 21 minutes left on the clock at Stamford Bridge and Spurs were 1-0 down to Chelsea. Pape Matar Sarr had just hammered in an apparent equaliser from 25 yards. The home fans were furious, the Chelsea players complaining to Craig Pawson about a foul on Moises Caicedo. The away end exploded in gleeful delight.

But Postecoglou looked like he had a point he desperately wanted to make, one that he could not keep to himself. He turned to stare to the away end, 50 yards to his left. He held his right hand up to his right ear, as shown in the image above. And just to make himself clear, he waved down to the Spurs fans who were still celebrating, before returning his hands to his coat pockets and continuing to face the fans. Just two little gestures, all over in a matter of seconds. Even Sarr’s goal was disallowed in the end too. But this still felt like a moment where the ripples will be felt for some time.

So what explains this strange little sequence by the side of the pitch?

It looked, from the press box a few yards away, as if Postecoglou was riding an emotional surge of release and vindication, the buzz that comes with being doubted, scorned, and then proven right.

Just five minutes before, Postecoglou had sent on Sarr for Lucas Bergvall, desperately trying to reignite Spurs in yet another game that they had not shown up for. The away end hated that decision, feeling that Bergvall was one of the few Spurs players to play with any energy, commitment and an idea of how to move the ball forward. They sang, “You don’t know what you’re doing!” at Postecoglou, one of the most open displays of mutiny from the fans to the manager during his tenure.

On this interpretation, Postecoglou’s gesture was his chance to have a go back, a way to chide or mock the fans for having the gall to doubt him, to remind them that there is a reason why he is the manager and they are not. It left Postecoglou looking remarkably prickly and thin-skinned, if in a moment of triumph he had chosen to belittle his own supporters, rather than rallying behind their shared goals.

Postecoglou insisted afterwards that he was doing exactly that, rejecting any suggestion he had been putting down the fans. “It’s incredible how things get interpreted,” he said. “We’d just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer. I thought it was a cracking goal. I was just hoping we could get some excitement.” Postecoglou made a similar argument in a strikingly tetchy post-match interview with Sky Sports, where he said that he turned to face the away end “to see them smile”.

Some Spurs fans may buy that. They may accept Postecoglou’s argument that he is impervious to the criticism of the crowd. “It just doesn’t affect me”, he insisted. “If that’s what the fans feel, they’ve got every right to express it.”

But does this idea of Postecoglou as thick-skinned and impervious to noise sit with the reality that we have seen over the last two seasons? He has reacted to criticism from the stands enough times, at home and away games, for people to assume that some of this noise does get through. Why would someone who ignores criticism react to it as often as he does?

If Postecoglou’s only intention was to get the crowd to cheer, well, there are other gestures that encourage that, rather than the ones he used.

And if Postecoglou did not see his celebration as a dig at the fans, but rather a way to encourage them positively, why did he stand alone in the middle of the pitch afterwards, rather than going over to applaud the away end? Especially when his players who did go over to the fans were bearing the brunt of their frustration?

Ultimately, we cannot know exactly what was going on inside Postecoglou’s head at 9.30pm on Thursday night when this all happened.

But Spurs fans watching Postecoglou’s interviews and reading his words will ask themselves whether they believe him any more. And many will conclude that he is no longer granted the benefit of the doubt. Not after a season in which they have lost 16 out of 30 league games. A lot can get brushed under the carpet when it feels like the team is on the up. The dispute with Spurs fans after the Manchester City home game last season is a case in point. Whether you agreed with Postecoglou or not last May, he was making those comments from a position of strength. But that credit has been drawn down to zero.

Every defeat this season has chipped away at those bonds between Postecoglou and his fans. The situation is now so delicate and tenuous that any manager with an interest in self-preservation would surely be trying to keep the fans onside. This feels like a moment for constructive politics, for saying the right things, for trying to preserve just enough goodwill to light up the stadium next Thursday for the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Instead, Postecoglou was left having to try to explain his gesture, insisting that it was not meant to belittle the travelling fans. It was a bizarre situation for a manager to end up in. Especially as Spurs now have two home games and Postecoglou must know that he needs the crowd behind him to stay in the job. If the home crowd truly turns on him, they can make his future impossible.

In his press conference, Postecoglou asked whether he had risked alienating his fans with the apparent ear-cup. “I am at such a disconnect with the world these days,” he shrugged, “that, who knows, maybe you’re right.”

(Top photo: Robin Jones/Getty Images)

Twenty-seven months down, just under three months to go.

The clock on Fabio Paratici’s 30-month ban from football activity is slowly ticking towards zero. In July, he will be free to emerge from the shadows and step back into the light.

While Paratici’s ban does not stop him from working in the football industry, owing to a successful appeal of the extent of the ban two years ago, he has been consigned to work as a consultant and adviser since he was forced to resign from his post at Tottenham Hotspur in April 2023.

Only on June 30, when the ban finally expires, will he be able to return to the type of work through which he made his name: as a high-profile public-facing club executive. Like the work he did at Juventus, where from 2010 to 2021 he oversaw one of the most successful eras in their history, as the Turin club won nine Serie A titles in a row and reached the final of the Champions League twice.

Or the work at Tottenham, where Paratici was handed the keys to the club as managing director of football in June 2021. In less than two years officially working for Tottenham, Paratici started to bring in a new generation of players, many of them recruited for great prices. He formed a good working relationship with Antonio Conte, and Spurs’ fourth-placed finish in 2021-22 felt like the start of a thrilling new era.

In reality, both Paratici and Conte had left within one year. And Spurs have never finished that high again since. Spurs fans could be forgiven for already getting nostalgic about it.

Of course, we have to stare directly at the fact that he was banned for the plusvalenza scandal from his time at Juventus, related to the inflation of transfer fees for accounting purposes. Some will see this as a stain on his reputation, others will shrug their shoulders and say that football has never been an especially moral place, and that worse things are happening out there than accounting indiscretions. Some will say that once he has served his time, it is only right that he should be able to return to work.

This is what clubs will be weighing up if they consider a move for Paratici, 52, this summer. You can easily sketch out the upside to bringing him back into official employment. Here is a job candidate who comes with years of winning experience, a good track record in Italy and England, and a brimming contacts book. Beyond that, he has a natural charisma and name-recognition that some clubs will want to be associated with.

On the other hand, the baggage is unavoidable, as are the questions that will come with that. Some clubs now prefer to do their transfer business in a more discreet, analytical and thorough fashion, rather than leaning on contacts and gut feel for a player. Perhaps Paratici is the last great sporting director of the previous era, rather than at the cutting edge of the next one.

But these questions, or questions like them, will also be occupying minds at Milan right now. The Serie A side are currently enduring their worst season for 10 years, stuck in mid-table. Paulo Fonseca, appointed last summer, only lasted 17 league games before being replaced by Sergio Conceicao. They feel like a club in need of some boardroom football experience, even with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his own senior role at the club.

For a club trying to re-establish winning credibility, winning charisma after a difficult few years, Paratici could be perfect. He knows what it takes to win in Serie A. He has contacts to help bring in better players. And he has that energy that can lift everyone in the building.

When Tottenham recruited him in 2021, it was in the hope that he could bring ‘Juventus standards’ to Spurs. And, in a sense, he did, along with a former Juventus manager in Conte and former Juventus players in Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski. It did not end with Spurs getting Juventus results for more than a few months, but it may still have been an idea worth pursuing.

So the attraction to Milan is obvious. The question is whether Paratici would want to give up his current life to return to permanent Serie A work. Yes, he would get a job title out of it and might find that working for a new big club could lessen the association between him and the plusvalenza scandal. But Italy is a difficult place to work: more public than England, more political. Paratici has divided his time between Turin and London in recent years. He might find that he still wants to keep working in his adopted home.

Because Paratici has continued to be a trusted advisor to Levy in the last two years since his resignation. He is still often seen at Tottenham games, celebrating goals and posing for selfies with fans. None of which he is prohibited from given the reduced scope of his ban. And even though technical director Johan Lange has been in charge of recruitment since he arrived in late 2023, Paratici is still a hugely trusted voice.

This season’s team is still full of players Paratici either signed as managing director of football (Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr, Destiny Udogie, Pedro Porro), or whom he advised on signing post-resignation (James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin). Put it all together — the two years as an executive and another two as a consultant — and Paratici has been one of the most influential off-field figures in Spurs’ recent history. Far more so than many of their recent managers.

This is still a team and a club with a marked Paratici imprint on it. There are people at Spurs who miss his winning mentality behind the scenes, his charisma and his political skill. Levy still highly values his advice and respects the fact he has signed some fantastic players for Spurs without breaking the bank. As it stands, if Spurs do indeed make a managerial change this summer and replace Postecoglou, then it is inconceivable that Levy would do so without consulting Paratici on what to do next.

But if this is another transitional summer for Spurs, there is one dramatic card that Levy could yet play: the full Paratici restoration. If they wanted a high-profile, eye-catching move, then it might even make sense.

Right now, the word from the club is that nothing is happening in that regard. Tottenham of course have Lange and chief football officer Scott Munn in position. And with Paratici still banned until July, there is certainly no rush to do anything. Especially when Paratici is an influential figure already.

But from this summer, Paratici will be free to re-enter the job market again. And it will not just be Tottenham and Milan who take note.

(Top photo: Jack Thomas/Getty Images)

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur face off tonight for the second time this Premier League season.

It is one of the standout games from this round of top-flight fixtures, given it is another edition of one of the most vociferous rivalries in the English game. And both sides have plenty to play for at Stamford Bridge, whether to achieve their goals this season or just for the sake of pride.

Here, The Athletic’s Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey and Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Jay Harris discuss the upcoming match.

What has changed since the last time the teams met in early December?

Liam Twomey: Chelsea’s impressive 4-3 comeback win over Tottenham on December 8 moved them to within four points of Premier League leaders Liverpool, sparking a lively debate about their burgeoning title credentials. Enzo Maresca was notably keen to stress his young team was not ready to battle for top spot, and events in the four months since have proven him grimly correct.

If the Premier League had begun on December 9, Chelsea would be 14th. They have won just five of 14 league matches since beating Spurs, garnering 18 points — only four more than Ange Postecoglou’s team. They also have a slightly negative goal difference over that span (18 scored, 19 conceded), which underlines the attacking problems that have undermined them.

Injuries to Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have removed two of the most dangerous receivers of incisive passes from talisman Cole Palmer. Palmer has also seen his own goal production dry up completely since scoring in back-to-back Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth in January.

Chelsea are still fourth (at the time of this conversation), just about on track for Champions League qualification, with key players including Jackson and Madueke nearing returns. But they urgently need a lift to re-establish some positive momentum for a challenging run-in, and beating Spurs again would do just that.

Jay Harris: Tottenham were sent into a downward spiral after losing at home to Chelsea for the second season in a row. Postecoglou’s first-choice centre-back partnership Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven returned from injury in that chaotic game on December 8 but suffered setbacks and have only started together once since then.

Spurs won their next game against Southampton but then went on a seven-game winless run which included damaging defeats by Everton and Leicester City. They reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were thrashed by Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg.

Postecoglou has had to juggle a threadbare squad and has been forced to name lots of academy players on the bench. Just when it seemed like the situation was improving with the return of Wilson Odobert, Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie, Kevin Danso and Dejan Kulusevski picked up injuries.

Tottenham are low on confidence and there is serious doubt over Postecoglou’s long-term future. The only spark of optimism is the possibility of winning the Europa League.

There’s discontent at both clubs currently, but which one is having the better season?

Twomey: For all of the problems Chelsea are dealing with, no one at Stamford Bridge or Cobham would swap places with Tottenham. Maresca’s team is depleted and clearly flawed, but remains well positioned to earn a return to the Champions League in 2025-26 — by some distance the most important objective for this season.

The return in the domestic cups has been disappointing given Chelsea’s history, and Maresca provoked the ire of many fans after a limp FA Cup exit away at Brighton & Hove Albion last month by citing as a “positive” the fact that his players could focus fully on the Premier League and Conference League.

But there is still a very good chance that the Italian will end his first season as head coach with a trophy; Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to win the UEFA Conference League and as long as that success goes hand-in-hand with Champions League qualification, 2024-25 will go down as an unequivocal step forward.

Harris: Despite losing three of their last five league games, Chelsea are fourth in the table (at the time of this conversation) and have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League.

Spurs have lost over half of their top-flight matches this season and are only above Everton on goal difference but none of the supporters will care if they win the Europa League. However, if Postecoglou fails to deliver success in that competition then this will go down as potentially the worst season in Spurs’ modern history.

Tottenham’s chairman Daniel Levy summed it up best, in a statement accompanying their annual financial results, by describing it as a “highly challenging season”.

How do both sets of fans feel about the head coach?

Twomey: Maresca’s approval rating among supporters has plummeted alongside Chelsea’s form since early December.

Part of it is results and part of it is performances; a view has taken hold within a large swathe of the fanbase, reinforced by some of the Italian’s public comments, that the team’s early form in 2024-25 was powered by the chaotic, transitional muscle memory forged during Mauricio Pochettino’s brief tenure and that the more the slower, possession-focused principles of Marescaball have taken hold, the more predictable and less effective Chelsea have become.

That theory does not make much allowance for how the loss of several key players to injury (not just Jackson and Madueke but also Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana) have upended the balance that Maresca was attempting to establish — but the fact that so few are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt is indicative of broader disillusionment with the club’s direction.

The act of criticising Maresca has become a more convenient shorthand for expressing opposition to the overall strategy deployed by majority owners Clearlake Capital.

Harris: It feels like the tide is beginning to turn with Postecoglou. The majority of the fanbase backed the Australian throughout a miserable winter when Spurs were ravaged by injuries but performances have not improved since key players have returned and difficult questions are being asked.

Spurs were not thrilling at the beginning of the campaign when they had a healthy squad and it is not unreasonable to ask if the injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team which was already declining.

And what about the players?

Twomey: Many supporters recognise that Chelsea’s unprecedented transfer spending under Clearlake and Todd Boehly has assembled a very talented core of young players, led by the consistently excellent Moises Caicedo and the peerless Palmer, adored at Stamford Bridge. Marc Cucurella is also emerging as something of a cult hero, for his personality and his play.

But many others have so far failed to convince a majority of fans, and on Chelsea’s bad days — which have outnumbered the good ones in the last four months — the shortcomings of this team and the holes in this squad are glaring, particularly in both boxes.

Robert Sanchez lost the trust of Stamford Bridge to be the team’s starting goalkeeper long ago and has been booed and jeered at times. Jackson is respected for his work ethic and all-round contribution but his erratic finishing is a source of deep frustration, made even more fraught by the lack of credible No 9 alternatives available to Maresca.

Harris: There is a core group of players that Spurs should build around for the next five years which includes Solanke, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario and a few others.

This summer feels like the right time to sell underperforming or injury-prone players who have been given multiple chances including Yves Bissouma and Richarlison. Romero is the vice-captain but he has two years left on his contract and has been linked with a move to Atletico Madrid. Would it be worth cashing in on the World Cup winner whose availability record has been patchy for Spurs anyways?

Tottenham triggered a one-year contract extension in Son Heung-min’s contract but his long-term future needs to be resolved too.

If you could take one thing from the other club, what would it be?

Twomey: Tottenham’s stadium! Chelsea Pitch Owners would never sign off on relocating to north London but within Chelsea there is plenty of grudging admiration for Daniel Levy’s success in delivering what some regard as the finest, most modern club arena in Europe.

Stamford Bridge is an iconic home boasting 120 years of history, but the question of what to do about its limited capacity is the defining one hanging over Chelsea’s future. Whether it be on the same site or at Earls Court, they need their own version of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sooner rather than later.

Harris: Tottenham would love to have Chelsea’s strength in depth and the ability to completely change their starting XI for different competitions. You could make a strong argument that Spurs’ failure to replace fringe players who left last summer, including Oliver Skipp, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal, contributed to their injury crisis over winter. Key players were barely afforded any rest until their bodies broke down.

If I had to pick a particular player, then I would go for Caicedo. He would offer the defence the protection it desperately craves and could nurture Gray in the No 6 role.

What worries you about the other team ahead of the game?

Twomey: Tottenham’s league position means they will come to Stamford Bridge with very little to lose, and some of their best wins under Postecoglou have come away from home.

Harris: Jackson, Madueke and Palmer being reunited sounds like a recipe for disaster for Spurs.

And what should the other team be worried about?

Twomey: Chelsea showed in the December meeting that they are not cowed by Spurs in the manner they sometimes give the impression of being by other ‘Big Six’ opponents. Maresca also has plenty of attackers (as long as they are fit) who can exploit Postecoglou’s high line.

Harris: Tottenham have demonstrated on multiple occasions this season that they can turn up and win important games. They have beaten Manchester City twice, Manchester United three times and earned an impressive 1-0 Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool in January.

When everything falls into the right place, Spurs can still cause opponents a lot of problems.

What’s a realistic aim now for the rest of the season?

Twomey: Chelsea have one of the tougher Premier League run-ins on paper, but finishing well enough to secure Champions League qualification is well within the capabilities of this group. It would also be a huge shock and disappointment if they do not win the Conference League.

Harris: Tottenham have lost half of their games in the top flight this season and Postecoglou needs to change that alarming statistic. The main goal though is to lift the Europa League trophy in Bilbao on May 21. Anything less and the chances of Postecoglou sticking around for next season will be slim.

How big is Thursday night’s game relative to the usual clashes between these teams?

Twomey: We are nowhere near the stakes of the infamous Battle of the Bridge, and Tottenham’s lowly league position means only one of these teams can meaningfully affect their Premier League destiny. But this is a big game for Chelsea and perhaps even more so for Maresca, who needs to boost his popularity with supporters. Few things go further towards achieving that end than beating Spurs.

Harris: It is not on the same scale as December’s match when both teams were directly competing with each other towards the top of the table. Tottenham need to win on Thursday to give themselves a confidence boost ahead of the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next week.

What’s your prediction?

Twomey: Expect a feisty London derby with shades of real animosity, particularly after the way Chelsea humiliated Spurs in December. As long as Maresca’s team have Jackson back and bring the appropriate level of intensity, they should have enough quality to squeeze out a win.

Harris: It will be another erratic encounter where Chelsea look to exploit the space behind Tottenham’s back four through their rapid wingers Madueke and Pedro Neto. If Tottenham are at full strength with Kulusevski and Van de Ven both available, then I can see them coming away with a positive result.

(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Callum Olusesi has signed a new four-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur.

The central midfielder, who only turned 18 last month, made his first-team debut for Spurs earlier this year from the bench in their 3-2 victory over Hoffenheim in the Europa League. He has been an unused substitute on 12 occasions in the Premier League too.

Olusesi helped Spurs win both the Under-17 and Under-18 Premier League Cup in the 2022-23 campaign and made several appearances for the Under-21s last season as they won the Premier League 2 title.

Olusesi is close friends with Mikey Moore and they have progressed through Tottenham’s academy together. They have regularly trained with Ange Postecoglou’s first-team squad and both represented England at last summer’s Under-17 European Championship.

Moore, who does not turn 18 until August, has made 16 appearances under Postecoglou this season but missed two months of action due to a virus.

‘Spurs give young players hope there is a first-team pathway’

Tottenham’s 3-0 victory over Elfsborg in the Europa League in January should give young players in their academy, including Olusesi, confidence that there is a clear pathway into the first-team.

Damola Ajayi scored on his debut while other academy graduates Moore and Dane Scarlett found the back of the net too. Postecoglou has consistently given young players opportunities across his two seasons in charge including Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray.

Spurs have signed highly-rated young players from other clubs including Yang-Min Hyeok and Luka Vuskovic. They are collecting some of the best upcoming talent from around the world but, crucially, keep promoting players they have developed internally too.

With a new deal which runs until 2029, Olusesi will hope to follow the path Moore and Will Lankshear have made by stepping up into senior football permanently.

(Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Cristian Romero charged up the pitch with one objective.

In Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-0 defeat by Fulham in March, the 26-year-old left his centre-back partner Ben Davies alone and tracked Raul Jimenez deep into Fulham territory before clattering into him on the touchline. Jimenez hobbled in pain while Romero jogged back into position, facial expression unchanged.

When Tottenham faced AZ in the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 tie, Romero shoulder-barged his opponents and screamed in the face of his former team-mate Troy Parrott. The Argentina international is unrelenting in aggressively pursuing opponents.

The problem is that drama follows him in the same way.

After losing Arsenal goalscorer Gabriel at a corner in September’s 1-0 north London derby defeat, Argentinian media reported that Romero was unhappy with his travel arrangements after representing his country twice in World Cup qualifiers. Romero arrived at Gatwick Airport on Thursday and had only a couple of days to train before facing Arsenal.

In December, Romero came off injured after 10 minutes during Tottenham’s defeat by Chelsea and appeared to criticise chairman Daniel Levy in an interview with Spanish broadcaster Telemundo Deportes.

“You have to realise that something is going wrong,” Romero said. “Hopefully they (club board) realise who the true responsible ones are and we move forward because it’s a beautiful club that, with the structure it has, could easily be competing for the title every year.” Head coach Ange Postecoglou revealed a few days later that Romero apologised for his comments.

At the beginning of March, after making his comeback from the quad issue he suffered against Chelsea, Romero only thanked Argentina’s medical staff for their help with his recovery, which hinted at dissatisfaction with Spurs.

Romero has only made three appearances in all competitions since he returned from injury, but speculation is growing around his long-term future. Tottenham’s vice-captain has a contract until 2027 but has been linked with Real Madrid, and it has emerged that he is a target for their city neighbours Atletico. What does the future hold?

Romero has made high-profile errors this season, with the latest example coming in Argentina’s 4-1 victory over Brazil in March. On the ball in his own half, he took a loose touch, which allowed Matheus Cunha to pinch it before firing a shot past Emiliano Martinez.

In August at Leicester City, he left Jamie Vardy unmarked for the equaliser in a 1-1 draw. A few weeks later, Romero stepped up when the rest of Tottenham’s defence dropped off in the build-up to Alexander Isak’s strike in a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United. He left Danny Welbeck unmarked when the forward scored a header in a 3-2 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion. In the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on March 9 — the defender’s first appearance since December — an erratic left-footed pass in the opening minute was nearly punished by Evanilson.

Romero won the Copa America with Argentina last summer and had less than three weeks off before he reported for pre-season. He started the first 11 league games but would have benefited from being slowly reintegrated.

In a report from FIFPRO on player workload, Romero travelled more than any other player during 2023-24, covering a distance of 162,978 kilometres. The next highest was his international team-mate Julian Alvarez, with 153,869km. Constantly travelling must be physically, emotionally and mentally draining and it is not surprising that it can negatively impact him.

Since the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, which he helped his country to win, Romero has started 27 out of 32 matches (84 per cent), including friendlies.

But Romero’s fitness struggles suggest it has not always been the right decision to travel to Argentina to play under Lionel Scaloni.

A toe injury sustained in a reckless challenge on Morgan Rogers in Tottenham’s 4-1 victory over Aston Villa in November became a repeat issue when he started for Argentina against Paraguay 12 days later, with him being taken off at half-time due to discomfort.

He did not play again until Spurs hosted Chelsea on December 8 and lasted 15 minutes. The Athletic reported in January that Romero only had a couple of training sessions before then and, suffering a quad injury, raised questions about his rehab work. The club said that this sort of injury is impossible to predict and this speculation is hindsight.

There have been 143 top-flight games since Romero joined Spurs in August 2021, initially on loan from Italian side Atalanta before the move became permanent for £42.5million. He has started 94 of them (65 per cent). He has only appeared in more than 30 league games in a season once for Spurs across four years.

Romero has barely missed a game for Argentina over the past few years, but his poor availability for Spurs is concerning.

Romero can be erratic, but Tottenham have missed his quality and leadership this season. He has won multiple trophies with Argentina. He has a good relationship with Postecoglou, who appointed him as vice-captain last season. He is the voice of the Spanish-speaking and South American contingent in Spurs’ dressing room, which includes Rodrigo Bentancur, Pedro Porro and Sergio Reguilon. He still occasionally defends in a wild manner but does not concede as many fouls or receive bookings like he used to. The defender’s experience would have been invaluable in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup defeats away at Aston Villa and Liverpool respectively.

Romero is brave in possession and excellent at playing line-breaking passes. When Radu Dragusin partnered Archie Gray at centre-back between December and January, he looked nervous on the ball. Dragusin was guilty of turning away from strikers and passing back to the goalkeeper, which slowed down Tottenham’s attacks.

It is rare to see Romero looking flustered in those situations. Romero’s aggressive, front-footed approach to defending complements Micky van de Ven, who has the recovery speed to sweep up any loose balls played in behind. They will be crucial to Spurs’ chances of reaching the Europa League final in Bilbao on May 21.

After Spurs beat AZ 3-2 on aggregate last month, Romero and Van de Ven were reunited for the first time in three months. “For the first 60 minutes, it was as solid as we’ve been all year,” Postecoglou said. “They had one shot off a set piece and they didn’t threaten us at all. Central defensive partnerships are important and both with and without the ball, they gave us good options.

“With the ball, Micky is a great outlet for us because he can run with it, having a left-footed defender helps and (Romero’s) passing range is ridiculous.”

There are similarities between Romero and Kevin Danso, who joined Spurs in January on loan from French side Lens with an obligation to buy for €25m. Danso, who has been capped over 20 times by Austria, is only five months younger than Romero.

Danso’s arrival means Postecoglou has four centre-backs, although Dragusin is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in January, along with Gray and Davies, who can cover the position. Davies is the established backup, but it is unclear who Postecoglou would select when everybody is fit.

Van de Ven’s contract runs until 2029, while Dragusin and Danso’s deals expire 12 months later. Romero only has two years left on his contract and if he leaves, Spurs already have a right-footed replacement who likes to battle strikers and is comfortable carrying the ball forward in Danso. If Romero does not sign a new contract, the upcoming transfer window is the best time to sell him for a significant fee.

It is easy to see the appeal that Atletico might hold for Romero. It would give him the opportunity to work under an Argentinian coach in Diego Simeone and to play regularly with several international team-mates, including Alvarez, Rodrigo De Paul, Giuliano Simeone and Nahuel Molina.

Spurs will miss out on European football for the second time in three years unless they win the Europa League. At Atletico, Romero would join a team fighting for the title, compared to Spurs, who have taken a step backwards in Postecoglou’s second year in charge. His long-term future is in serious doubt, while Simeone has been in charge of Atletico for over a decade.

Maybe Romero will help Spurs win a trophy for the first time since 2008 and will line up alongside Van de Ven in the Champions League next season. Tottenham’s squad is packed with young talent, including Gray and Lucas Bergvall, so Romero might be determined to keep leading them along with Son Heung-min.

Whatever happens next, do not expect the noise and drama surrounding Romero to quieten down anytime soon.

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

Ange Postecoglou has said that Tottenham Hotspur have suffered “enormous setbacks” this season and he believes their problems can be traced back to how they approached the start of the 2024-25 campaign in the “wrong” way.

Tottenham are 14th in the Premier League table and have lost more than half of their games. They finished fifth in Postecoglou’s first season in charge and it now looks like they will not even be able to secure a top 10 finish in his second year. Tottenham are 15 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, who they face on Thursday evening.

Spurs were eliminated by Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup and were thrashed by Liverpool in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. Their only chance of lifting silverware this season, and qualifying for the Champions League, is by winning the Europa League. The Athletic reported last week that Postecoglou’s future is in serious doubt due to their bad results.

Postecoglou has had to deal with an injury crisis this term with key players Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie all unavailable for long periods of time. Van de Ven has only made four appearances since October while Romero missed three months with a quad injury. When Spurs beat Elfsborg 3-0 in the Europa League on January 30, Postecoglou named two goalkeepers and five academy players on the bench due to their lack of senior options.

The Australian said that Spurs have shown “glimpses” of their quality but they have been “nowhere near it” in the league and it has been a “disappointing season”.

“My inkling is we probably got the start of the year wrong,” Postecoglou said in an interview with Australian broadcaster Optus Sport. “It is becoming increasingly challenging for footballers these days. They don’t get a traditional break and I just think we went into the season really hard. We probably underestimated the challenges of Europe this year with your two extra games and having a deep cup run. All those kinds of things and you add to the mix that we lost key players early on.

“From my perspective, it feels like we have been chasing our tails ever since. We haven’t been able to get ahead of the challenge. Every time we try to get steady ground something else happens that shifts. A lot of that goes back to the start of the year and we maybe would have taken a different approach knowing the season we had ahead.”

Postecoglou then said that the football schedule is “too demanding” when he was asked about the benefits of a potential winter break by former Australia international Mark Schwarzer.

“It’s not just on the continent they have a winter break but most of them only have one domestic cup competition,” he said. “Most of them give the teams in Europe a break before European games. Most of them have less than 20 teams in their top leagues. Then you add in the international schedule. There will become a breaking point.”

Tottenham take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday and then host Southampton this weekend before playing Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final next week.

(Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

There’s not much we haven’t seen in the north London Derby down the years — but the next time they clash will represent a first for the fixture.

On July 31, Tottenham and Arsenal will face off at the 50,000-seater Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong, 6,000 miles from London, the first time the game will be played overseas.

“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,” Ryan Norys, Tottenham’s chief revenue officer, said in a statement to the club’s website.

“As is tour tradition, the club will be involved in so much more than the match itself when we visit, supporting charitable causes, celebrating local culture, delivering football clinics for young people and engaging with fans and partners. We cannot wait to visit such a beautiful place once again.”

Arsenal’s managing director Richard Garlick described it as a “great experience for both teams and supporters” and that the club “cannot wait to connect with our Hong Kong supporters in this wonderful part of the world”.

Here, The Athletic explains why they’re doing it, and what people think.

Why are Arsenal and Spurs playing in Hong Kong?

Naturally, money is a significant factor in this decision.

Tottenham are regular visitors to Asia in pre-season and spent last summer in South Korea and Japan. It will be Arsenal’s first visit to Hong Kong since 2012, when they drew 2-2 with local side Kitchee SC in the Hong Kong Stadium. Pre-season tours are big money spinners for Europe’s biggest clubs, with the most prominent clubs demanding millions for individual matches.

A source, kept anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athletic in 2022 that Europe’s premier clubs can demand fees of over £2million ($2.6m) per game. Given that this is the first north London derby to take place on foreign soil, it would not be a surprise for Arsenal and Spurs to demand a comparable figure.

Tottenham sit 14th in the Premier League and will likely not qualify for Europe through their league position. They are in the quarter-final of the Europa League and could still enter next season’s Champions League by winning that tournament. But the extra revenue earned through pre-season friendlies may help to make up for the potential lost income.

Spurs released their accounts for 2023-24 on Monday, a season in which they were not in European competition. Their total revenue decreased by four per cent to £528.2million from 2022-23, with the money earned from UEFA competition dropping from £56.2m to £1.3m.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy noted how a varied “income strategy” will help the club compete in the transfer market in the absence of the added European competition prize money.

“Our capacity to generate recurring revenues determines our spending power,” he said in a statement on the club’s website. “We cannot spend what we do not have, and we will not compromise the financial stability of this club — indeed, our off-pitch revenues have significantly supplemented the lower football revenues this year, testament to our diversified income strategy.”

In contrast, Arsenal posted record revenues of £616.6 million for 2023/24, an increase of around £150m from the season before. Mikel Arteta’s side appears set to qualify for Europe’s premier competition again next season and have a Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid on the horizon.

Long-term, pre-season tours and high-profile spectacle fixtures may help to grow the international fanbase. Which, of course, means more merchandise sold, lucrative broadcast deals and increased revenues for the Premier League and its clubs.

Where is the game being played?

Kai Tak Stadium, which opened officially on March 1, will host the fixture as part of its inaugural Hong Kong football festival.

It opened its doors to the public with the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament last weekend, attracting over 110,000 fans over three days, according to World Rugby. It will also be the venue for several major concerts between now and the pre-season north London derby, including four dates of Coldplay’s ‘Music of the Spheres’ world tour this month.

On July 26, five days before Spurs and Arsenal are scheduled to play, Liverpool and their 2005 and 2007 Champions League final opponents AC Milan will play the first football match in the stadium.

According to reports in China, the Kai Tak Sports Park, including the stadium, cost around HK$30billion ($3.8bn; £2.9bn) to build. With a capacity of 50,000 in the main stadium and 10,000 in the indoor arena, it is Hong Kong’s largest sports venue.

If you plan to follow Spurs to Hong Kong, there’s plenty to do around the park. There’s an on-site mall with over 200 stores and a 40-lane 10-pin bowling alley. There are also more than 60 food and drink vendors.

What’s the history of these two playing friendlies?

Arsenal and Tottenham have a long and well-documented history in various competitions, but their first meeting was actually a friendly.

Tottenham hosted the amateur club Royal Arsenal, as they were known then, on November 19 1887, on the Tottenham Marshes. The home side were 2-1 ahead, when the game was abandoned in the 75th minute due to bad light. By then, Tottenham Hotspur were five years old and playing competitively in the London Association Cup. Arsenal, in contrast, were in their second season, playing at the Sportsman Ground on the Plumstead Marshes in south-east London.

While it’s technically a competitive fixture, some may count their 1991 Charity Shield meeting as a friendly. To emphasise the “friendliness” of the occasion, Arsenal and Spurs played out a 0-0 draw with no extra time or penalties to decide the winner, and both sides held the trophy for six months each. It was the last time the Charity Shield trophy was shared, with new regulations brought in the following season to go to extra time and, subsequently, penalties should the scores be level after 90 minutes.

Their most recent friendly match was in August 2021, with Spurs beating Arsenal 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Weeks after the Euro 2020 final, the home fans gave an ovation to Bukayo Saka, who missed a penalty in the shootout defeat to Italy, with the England and Arsenal forward acknowledging the support with his own applause.

What do UK-based fans think?

Dom N, Arsenal season ticket holder

“I wasn’t particularly surprised by the news, but I was surprised that we hadn’t played Tottenham in a friendly (abroad) before. I hadn’t thought about it but the environmental point is a little crazy, but we’ve seen Barcelona vs Real Madrid, and Arsenal vs Manchester United and Liverpool abroad, so what’s the big deal? It’s nothing particularly different to what we’ve done with previous friendlies.

“As a match-going fan, everyone deserves the chance to experience Arsenal live. We have a huge worldwide fanbase, so I don’t see any issue with us playing Tottenham in Hong Kong or just abroad. If we are going to make a few million, which means money towards more signings and potentially subsidising costs for members and season ticket holders, it would be interesting to know whether that was something they were thinking about.

“It’s a friendly and we’re playing Tottenham. Maybe that’s not a ‘friendly’ but there will be a needle in that game even if it is a friendly. Arsenal aren’t going to want to lose to Tottenham, regardless of where it is. I personally don’t see any issue with it.”

Adam N, Tottenham season ticket holder

“It’s obviously not the absolute end of the world, there are plenty of worse things that go on in football, but as a “legacy fan”, as Spurs have dubbed us, it’s sad to see something like this happening.

“Football needs to try and reach new horizons, which is totally understandable, but it does feel like they push and push. It’s a little tweak here and try something else there. You look at Spain, and they have their Super Cup now happening in Saudi Arabia. People are talking about the Champions League final one day happening in America. Things like this friendly don’t directly lead to it, but it feels like they’re trying to push the boundaries and make that sort of thing gradually more acceptable to fans.

“Obviously these kind of prestige friendlies are great for fans across the world, but for the ‘bread and butter’ supporter who has been going for years, it’s not particularly palatable. I don’t think many people who have been born and bred in London and have been going to Spurs forever would be very happy to see this. It kind of feels like a precursor to the 39th game and setting the table for stuff going forward. That does have more of a serious effect on the league and how we support our clubs in competitive games.

“Ultimately, if this revenue gives the club the opportunity to bring in top talent, who are we to argue…?”

What do Hong Kong fan groups think?

Billy Ip, Tottenham Hong Kong supporters’ club committee member

“Regardless of what opponents they are playing, every time Spurs go to Hong Kong, it is meaningful. It means everything to the Spurs fans in Hong Kong and Asia. Fan groups from different parts of southeast Asia, like Singapore, Japan, and Korea, will come and have a great time there.

“The last time Spurs came to Hong Kong was seven or eight years ago. The supporters’ club had a great night with (Mauricio) Pochettino in a bar. It was a great occasion; he sat with us for maybe an hour and a half and answered our questions. After that, we sang together and drank together.

“For every Spurs fan, it’s extra special that it will be a north London Derby. It’s a dream for every fan to watch it in person. It’s a great opportunity for fans in Asia to get to watch it with their own eyes. We expect people from Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, mainland China — even Macau, the Philippines, and Malaysia. We will feel the importance of it, and I hope we take no prisoners. We will go and defeat them. We say Hong Kong is white, not red.

“Hong Kong is not famous in a football sense, but we have a great passion for football. So, with the new stadium, and everything that it brings, and inviting big clubs to play, there will be a big boost to Hong Kong’s prestige in Asia. The people in Hong Kong love football. They may not do so well in football, but we love our teams and the sport.

Adam Ng, Arsenal Hong Kong supporters’ club committee member

“It is our honour to be the first country hosting the north London derby. We are so excited and looking forward as most fans will never have the opportunity to watch this game at the Emirates Stadium or watch Arsenal. I think the last time Arsenal came to Hong Kong was in 2012.

“It is a milestone for our new stadium. The north London derby is a special game; it’s not a normal friendly or exhibition game. We have more than 500 people in our (supporters’) club and, so long as the game is played before midnight, we organise a party for every game to watch together.

“When you talk about international matches, well, the MLB and the NBA started bringing international games over years ago. They get great feedback from the new audience. It’s a very good opportunity to promote the game in different countries — I see the positive side. Most overseas fans expect we will only get exhibition football games, we don’t expect a competitive game like the Champions League final. But if there’s a chance to watch a league game over here, maybe the first game of the season, that would be something else for us.”

But are there environmental ramifications?

Freddie Daley, from the Cool Down Sport for Climate Action Network

“Pre-season tours to far-flung places are becoming the norm in the Premier League. These fixtures create a growing tension between clubs’ attempts to grapple with their emissions and a desire to expand their fanbase. A north London derby, set to take place in Hong Kong, is a glaring example of the contradictions at the heart of football’s sustainability efforts.

“Spurs and Arsenal have publicly pledged to cut their emissions and reach net zero, yet pre-season tours that require vast amounts of air travel are deemed permissible or even necessary. This suggests both a failure to acknowledge the scale of climate challenge for football and a lack of leadership from clubs that are purported pioneers on this issue.

Frank Huisingh from Fossil Free Football

“This is a terrible idea. Players are exhausted from the crazy number of matches already and, at the same time, the climate crisis is getting worse fast and hurting people around the world. More long-haul flights are the opposite of what we need.

“There are so many alternatives: a longer local pre-season tour with amateur clubs, a match in London between the two teams or a small tournament with clubs at train distance, including PSG and Ajax, for example.”

(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Getty Images)