Tottenham Hotspur will be eager to get back to winning ways when they host Arsenal in Sunday’s North London derby.
Spurs have played well for the most part in their opening three games of the Premier League season, but they only have four points to show for it.
Tottenham should’ve thrashed Leicester City and had enough to overcome Newcastle United, but a lack of cutting edge and some defensive errors cost them.
Now, Spurs will be up against their arch-rivals, who have several key players missing.
Declan Rice is suspended, Mikel Merino is injured, and Martin Odegaard is an injury doubt.
Ange Postecoglou held his pre-match press conference on Friday. The Spurs News looks at the key points from his presser, as per football.london and the Evening Standard.
Tottenham injury news ahead of North London derby
Postecoglou confirmed that £175,000-a-week forward Richarlison and Spurs academy star Will Lankshear are “in rehab” and will miss out.
Meanwhile, Yves Bissouma will face a late fitness test after he limped off in Mali’s win over Eswatini at the start of the week.
Micky van de Ven is “all good” and available, while Dominic Solanke is likely to be involved after the Spurs summer signing returned to training in midweek.
Ange Postecoglou’s reaction to Rodrigo Bentancur charge
Rodrigo Bentancur has been charged with “misconduct in relation to a media interview” by the FA following his comments about Spurs captain Son Heung-min this summer.
Bentancur apologised in June after he appeared to say all South Korean people “look the same” in an interview with a Uruguayan TV station, as reported by the Evening Standard.
The Uruguay apologised to Son on Instagram, calling his comments a “very bad joke”.
“Yeah, not unexpected from our perspective,” said Postecoglou. “It’s something that we know the league would look at and we need to let the process sort of play out now.
“You know, Rodrigo’s well aware of the ramifications of any outcome from from the panel, but we’ll just wait and see what they come out with.
Postecoglou went on to say: “We kind of know him very well and a lot better than most because we spend every day with him and we understand the kind of person he is.
“We understand that even though he’s a great guy and a fantastic teammate, he’s made a big error this time and he’s got to take the punishment.
“But also we need to make sure that we give him the opportunity to atone from it, learn from it and hopefully others learn from it as well.”
READ MORE: The nation’s pundits predict Tottenham v Arsenal result
Postecoglou says Djed Spence could be in line for “plenty of game time”
Tottenham courted controversy earlier this month after they omitted Djed Spence from their Europa League group-stage squad amid some very specific rules.
Spurs only have two ‘club-trained players’ in Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman, which means they lose two spots and their squad size is reduced to 23.
Theoretically, it would have been a shootout between Spence and Fraser Forster for the final spot and Postecoglou has opted to go with his back-up goalkeeper.
“Obviously with the makeup of our squad currently – you are always going to have to leave somebody out and Djed was the unfortunate one,” said the Tottenham boss.
“But at the same time, Djed’s already played in the Premier League and, if you asked him at the start of the year where he sees himself, I think the fact that he’s part of our squad and will obviously play a huge part in our year because he has already.
“I don’t think you should take too much disappointment. Obviously everyone wants to play, but in the end it was about team B for us and we just feel that with the squad we’ve got, we’ve got some cover on the right side.
“[We] got some players you can cover on the left side. I always tend to go for more attacking players in those kind of scenarios, so Djed misses out, but, as I said, he’s already played in you know a couple of games in the Premier League. There will be plenty of football for him if he keeps going like he is.”
Postecoglou warns Tottenham not to fall into Arsenal “trap”
On Friday night, the Evening Standard published the embargoed quotes from the Tottenham presser, in which Postecoglou discusses the likely absence of Martin Odegaard.
“God, that’s a hell of a trap to fall into, if you think they [Arsenal] are reliant on two players [Rice and Odegaard]”, Postecoglou said.
“Two important players, but we were missing key players last year as well and we still managed to give significant performances.
“A team like Arsenal have been very, very consistent over the last two years and can fill whatever gaps they have. They have quality in their squad. The key for us is to focus on our performance.
“When we’ve played well – and we certainly have played well in the first three games – [if we are] a little more clear-headed in both boxes, we’re a match for any team.
“That’s what we’ve got to think about at the weekend.”
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