Inside Futbol

Former midfielder Kevin Nolan has reminded Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou that he is not in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic anymore but is manager of a Premier League team.

Tottenham appointed Postecoglou as their boss last summer, tempting him south of the border from Celtic, where he enjoyed huge success in Scottish football.

Spurs have had a slow start to the ongoing campaign and at the weekend, suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of their north London rivals Arsenal.

Tottenham’s performance against Arsenal has drawn criticism from several former players and Nolan pointed out that Spurs do not have the squad to take on Mikel Arteta’s side.

The former midfielder believes that Spurs performed poorly against Arsenal and issued a wake-up call to Postecoglou, stating that he is in the Premier League now, not in Scotland, Australia or Japan.

“I don’t think they have the squad to be better than Arsenal at this moment in time”, Nolan said on BBC Radio 5 live.

“It’s the Premier League, not the Scottish league – you’re not in Australia or Japan now.

“It will be interesting to see what happens because it was very poor from Tottenham.

“I expected more due to Arsenal’s vulnerabilities.”

Tottenham are currently sitting 13th in the league table with only one win from their four league games and all eyes will be on Postecoglou to see whether he can turn their season around.

Former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker feels that Tottenham Hotspur do not have an alternative plan and other teams have decrypted their style of play.

Spurs have made a difficult start to their Premier League campaign as they have rescued only four points from their four opening matches and suffered a crushing defeat against arch-rivals Arsenal on Sunday.

Ange Postecoglou and his coaching team are under massive pressure early on in the campaign, but Reo-Coker stressed that he was impressed with Postecoglou’s style of play last season.

The former Aston Villa and West Ham midfielder feels that even though Spurs play an attractive brand of football they do not have other approaches to adapt to situations.

He also labelled them as completely lacking in balance.

“Last season I was massively impressed and thought we could see a change happening there. But Tottenham completely lack balance”, Reo-Coker said on BBC Radio 5 live about the north London side.

“Yes, their football is entertaining but there is no plan B.”

The 40-year-old believes that other teams have worked out Tottenham’s playing style, but Spurs are still insisting on their brand of football.

“Teams have worked them out, yet they still continue to play the same way with the same style.”

Postecoglou’s side will be taking on Coventry City on Wednesday in the EFL Cup and they are back in the league against Brentford on Saturday.

They will look to get back to winning ways after suffering back-to-back losses against Newcastle United and Arsenal.

Dean Ashton believes that Tottenham Hotspur do buy players who are not the finished article and that shows where they are as a club compared to rivals Arsenal.

Tottenham had a bitter pill to swallow on Sunday afternoon when Arsenal visited and came away with a 1-0 win in a Premier League clash.

Spurs had the lion’s share of possession and even had more shots on goal than their rivals, but could not break through and walked away empty handed, with Gabriel scoring the winner for Arsenal.

While Arsenal are expected to be challenging for the Premier League title this season, Tottenham’s ambitions are limited to fighting for the top four.

Ex-top flight striker Ashton feels that Tottenham do simply have players who need to improve and are not the finished product, unlike Arsenal.

He thinks that is where they are as a club at the moment.

“Tottenham do buy players that still can improve, that still need work and are maybe more of an investment”, Ashton said on talkSPORT’s Sunday Session post match.

“That is where they are as a club and that must be really difficult for the Tottenham fans to see when Arsenal come to town and are more of a rounded side that have got better players and they struggle to compete.”

Ashton also stressed he would understand any Spurs fans that left before the end.

“If a couple of Tottenham fans left towards the end of the game it wouldn’t surprise me.

“There was no way they were going to score”, he added.

Spurs notably signed Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Dominic Solanke in the summer, while Arsenal landed Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino.

Dean Ashton has pointed to what surprised him most about Tottenham Hotspur during their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal on Sunday.

Spurs were hoping to put an early dent in Arsenal’s title ambitions in the Premier League clash on home turf, but endured a frustrating afternoon.

Five Tottenham players were booked in a fiercely contested north London derby, but Gabriel scored the only goal of the game for the visitors, from a set piece.

Ex-Premier League striker Ashton admits that he was surprised by how Tottenham responded to going behind.

Ashton stressed that after Arsenal went ahead, Heung-Min Son looked disinterested, James Maddison was unable to do anything and Spurs almost left their striker Dominic Solanke to his own devices.

Ashton said on talkSPORT’s Sunday Session: “The one thing that really surprised me was, after the goal, the response.

“Son looking very disinterested, Maddison not being able to get into the game.

“Nobody at all supporting Solanke. They just said we’ll leave you to it, to two of the best centre-backs in the division.

“That is the biggest question for me, the reaction of the Tottenham players and manager after the goal.”

Tottenham had the lion’s share of possession, having the ball over 60 per cent of the time, while they also had more shots and more shots on target than Arsenal managed.

Former Premier League striker Dean Ashton thinks that every team know what Tottenham Hotspur’s weak spot is, following Spurs’ losing against Arsenal, and target it.

Arsenal won the north London derby at Tottenham’s home ground, grinding out a 1-0 win in a feisty Premier League game which saw no fewer than eight players booked.

Gabriel was the man who won it for Arsenal as he shrugged off Cristian Romero to power a corner from Bukayo Saka past Guglielmo Vicario.

It was enough for all three points at Tottenham and Ashton thinks Arsenal simply targeted Spurs’ weak point in the shape of Vicario.

He feels that it is clear that Vicario is vulnerable from set pieces and yet again that showed as the Italian stayed rooted to his line.

Ashton said after the goal on talkSPORT’s Sunday Session: “It’s their weak spot, Tottenham, isn’t it?

“Every team targets Vicario from set plays.

“He can’t get out off his line, he’s stuck behind players. He hasn’t given himself the freedom to come and punch.

“And from inside the six yard box, Gabriel is one of the absolute best.

“He powers it past Vicario, who can’t react because he’s just stood on his line.”

Tottenham conceded 16 goals from set pieces over the course of last season and there have regularly been question marks over just how prepared they are to defend them.

The derby loss will lead to more questions being raised about how Postecoglou is coaching his team to deal with a key opposition threat.

Fixture: Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal

Competition: Premier League

Kick-off: 14:00 UK time

Ange Postecoglou has picked his Tottenham starting eleven and substitutes to welcome north London rivals Arsenal to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this afternoon in the Premier League.

Spurs head into the derby clash having beaten Arsenal just once in the last seven attempts in the Premier League and Postecoglou will want to defy that record today.

Arsenal make do without Declan Rice, who is suspended, while Martin Odegaard is absent through injury.

For Tottenham, Richarlison is out of action.

Spurs have Guglielmo Vicario between the sticks, while in defence Postecoglou picks Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie.

In midfield, Spurs field Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur, while James Maddison, Brennan Johnson and Heung-Min Son support Dominic Solanke.

Postecoglou has options on the bench if he needs to shake things up and they include Archie Gray and Timo Werner.

Tottenham Hotspur Team vs Arsenal

Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Son

Substitutes: Forster, Spence, Davies, Dragusin, Gray, Sarr, Bergvall, Odobert, Werner

Former Premier League defender Dominic Matteo thinks that one of Tottenham Hotspur’s out on loan stars is already showing his quality.

Spurs sanctioned the exit of a host of players in the summer as they trimmed the squad, but not all departures were of the permanent kind.

Alejo Veliz, Bryan Gil, Manor Solomon and Ashley Phillips were just some of the loan exits from Tottenham.

Israeli wide forward Solomon joined the north London side last summer on a five-year deal and the season before he impressed at Fulham.

The 25-year-old started only two league matches last season as he suffered a long-term meniscus injury and Ange Postecoglou made it clear this summer that Solomon would not get regular minutes.

Spurs splashed big money on Championship winger Wilson Odobert and Solomon joined Championship side Leeds United on a season-long loan deal.

Matteo has watched the attacker, insisted that Solomon’s capture from Spurs is the best bit of business done by the Whites and he believes that the Tottenham loan star possesses a lot of quality.

“Solomon has been the standout [signing], the one we’ve seen the most of so far”, Matteo said on LUTV about the Spurs loanee.

“I thought his performance against Hull [City] was excellent, the way he controlled the ball. If you look, you can see that he has played at a good level, the highest level.

“He has got a lot of quality and I think we’ve only touched the surface with that with the first performance.

“He looks really good.”

Spurs will be keeping a keen eye on Solomon’s performances at Elland Road.

There is no option to buy in the deal and he is due back at Tottenham next summer.

One of Tottenham Hotspur’s stars has opened up on a ‘pact’ made with his national side team-mates that they would be ready for a fight with no excuses on Monday evening.

Spurs’ stars are off on international duty at present and boss Ange Postecoglou will be hoping they all report back without any injury issues.

Tottenham defender Ben Davies and his Wales side managed to register a 2-1 victory over hosts Montenegro in a UEFA Nations League match, thus giving manager Craig Bellamy his first win as manager.

It followed a goalless draw against Turkey and took Wales to second spot in group four of League B.

Davies, who wore the skipper’s armband in that match, revealed how challenging the situation was when they visited Montenegro for the match.

He revealed that his team-mates and himself made a pact where they vowed to offer up no excuses and to fight hard for the result.

“On paper people might say we’re favourites and may have better players but the reality is when you come to places like this they are some of the hardest games you’ll play”, Davies told the BBC.

“It’s the conditions, it’s the atmosphere, it’s the travel, it’s all against you at times.

“But I think as a group we made a pact to say that we aren’t going to have any excuses and before we got here we were ready for the fight.”

Davies will now switch his focus back to matters at club level with Spurs, who are due to host Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday.

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A starlet that Tottenham Hotspur thought was bound for study in the United States was snapped up by one of their Premier League rivals, according to journalist Alan Nixon.

Spurs are keen to make sure they have a good supply of talents going through to the first team and this summer added two teenagers to the first team squad for big money in the shape of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.

They saw top prospect midfielder Han Willhoft-King though leave the club, with the 18-year-old intending to study at college in the United States.

Manchester City though found out about Willhoft-King leaving Tottenham and stepped in.

The champions’ charm offensive worked and the midfielder was convinced to snub college study and join Manchester City instead.

He accepted the proposal from Manchester City and will continue his development there.

Willhoft-King was on the books at Tottenham from the age of six and losing him to Premier League rivals when it seemed he had other plans will be a big blow.

He did have a scholarship at US college UCLA lined up, but is now turning out for Manchester City in the Premier League 2.