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The break is over and both Spurs teams will be back in action this weekend. Read on for previews of the derby matches and a quick roundup of news from the world of Tottenham.

In this issue: Previewing the weekend matches | Transfer talk | News from around the Lane

Previewing PL Matchday 26 — Crystal Palace

If we know one thing about Ange Postecoglou's team it's that they'll have spent the rare week away from competitive action doubling down on their training efforts. The loss to Wolves won't have been fun to reflect on for two weeks and we can expect to see them come roaring out of the gate against Crystal Palace. That energy will be much needed since Palace are always up for the derby.

Unfortunately, we got some disappointing injury updates ahead of the Saturday match. Not only is Pedro Porro still out and Destiny Udogie a doubt to feature, Richarlison will be out for around three weeks with a knee injury. As mentioned in this week's early issue, Ryan Sessegnon underwent hamstring surgery and Manor Solomon is still not ready to return, so the left side of the pitch is lacking in depth, particularly with Timo Werner almost certainly starting to make up for Richarlison's absence. At least, I'm hoping he will line up at left winger and not striker. Son Heung-min had a lot of success in the central role earlier in the season and it would make sense to employ him there again.

As for the fullback positions, both of which could be missing their usual starter again, it might be time to give the Micky van de Ven at left fullback experiment a try, with Radu Drăgușin replacing him at left centerback. Out of Emerson Royal and Ben Davies I much prefer to see the latter starting, but we saw in the last game that both of them starting is simply too much of a problem to withstand, both in defense and in attack. So Royal will have to get the nod to replace Porro. I suppose the other less conventional alternative is to have Davies fill in for Van de Ven at LCB. Either way, much like with the centerback position earlier in the season, this sudden injury crisis has highlighted the need for improving the fullback depth chart in the next transfer window.

The only other major decision for Ange to make on the starting lineup is whether to start Rodrigo Bentancur or Yves Bissouma to partner with Pape Sarr in the double pivot. The rest of the team is kind of picking itself at the moment, particularly with Dejan Kulusevski's improved performance against Wolves. James Maddison doesn't look fully fit or in form, but he probably needs to work his way through it on the pitch.

On a positive note, new Palace manager Oliver Glasner has quite a few injury misses to compensate for in his own team selection. Not only will be without two key defenders in Marc Guéhi and Nathan Ferguson, he's also missing one of the most potent players in Palace's attack, Michael Olise. Eberechi Eze and Will Hughes are both in back in contention.

I'm fairly confident that with these factors all accounted for we will be able to outscore the South London team—outscore being the operative word. With our defense still far from full strength we need the attack to be firing. And up next is a six-pointer with Aston Villa, so it would be good to gain some momentum ahead of that fixture.

Previewing WSL Matchday 15 — Arsenal

After achieving the historic first NLD victory in the WSL, Spurs Women now have a very real chance of doing the double on our London rivals in the same season.

That's because Arsenal are carrying heavy injuries (and international duty absences) into the away fixture. While a few of the players rumored to be injured are now considered in contention, they nevertheless arrive in less-than-ideal fitness. And Vivianne Miedema is ruled out entirely due to a minor knee operation. Amanda Ilestedt is also out despite training this week. Arsenal have several players still away at the Women's Gold Cup, which extends past the regular international break period. Those players include goalkeeper Sabrina D'Angelo & Cloé Lacasse of Canada and Emily Fox of the US.

Spurs, meanwhile, do not have any players remaining on international duty. In fact, the entire squad is in contention to play, with Ash Neville and Drew Spence finally available for selection again. Neville in particular would be a welcome addition to the starting lineup, although it's difficult to say which of the new transfers she should replace at fullback—they've both done a pretty good job on short notice.

I remain of the opinion that Becky Spencer deserves a chance to win back the #1 keeper spot, but in fairness to Barbora Votíková, she put in an immense shift in the reverse fixture.

In terms of tactics, it feels like we've been inching closer toward finding that perfect balance between defense and offense in recent games, and the only thing that's been holding us back has been less-than-stellar finishing from the attack. But several of our forwards and midfielders will be coming back from the international break with increased confidence after netting goal contributions for their countries. Fingers crossed they can translate that success into their club performances.

Lest I put too much hope on this result, I will also note that we can afford a poor one. Leicester City are closest to us in the table (ahead of Aston Villa on goal difference) but also face a difficult opponent in Chelsea, while Villa (who beat us in matchday 14) take on resilient & resourceful Liverpool. Of course, the ideal outcome would be a Spurs win and a Liverpool loss so we can close the gap on them for 5th place.

PSA for my fellow American fans: this match will be on Paramount+.

Transfer talk

Just two small tidbits!

• Eric Dier is officially a Bayern Munich player (for all intents and purposes) after making enough appearances to convert his loan to a permanent contract, running till the summer of 2025. Farewell for real, Eric.

• Yusuf Akhamrich has signed his first professional contract with the club. He's featured heavily for the U18s and can play across the left flank positionally. And as a fun fact, the announcement noted that Yusuf made his first international appearance with the Morocco U20s recently.

News from around the Lane

• At the London Football Awards, Ange Postecoglou earned Manager of the Year while Guglielmo Vicario picked up the Goalkeeper of the Year award. Congrats!

I won't cover all of the international break happenings on the Women's side, but here are a few highlights from the most recent action:

• Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen won the Pinatar Cup with Finland (alongside former Spurs player Tinni Korpela). They defeated Marthat Thomas' Scotland in the final on penalties. Martha netted three goals during the tournament.

• Matilda Vinberg scored her first international goal with Sweden. Oh, and she did this.

As many other Spurs fans have pointed out, this gave me flashbacks to Dele's touchline trickery a few seasons back. #memories

• Charli Grant and Australia earned qualification to the Olympics this summer. Charli came on as a sub in both games.

I'll sign off with some good vibes from the woman herself.

See y'all on the other side of the weekend, hopefully with two Spurs wins!

COYS

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