Tottenham Hotspur are back in action in the Premier League this weekend as they prepare to welcome London rivals Fulham to North London on Saturday night.
Spurs are looking to bounce back from successive defeats to Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain in their last two games, losing 5-3 to the French giants in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The Lilywhites have not won in the Premier League since they beat Everton 3-0 at the end of October, with one win in six in all competitions since, which is why it is so important for Thomas Frank's team to win this weekend.
They will have to get one over Fulham in order to do so, though, and it is a club that they have many connections to through players who have played for both.
Ranking Fulham players who have played for Spurs since 2010
Counting all players who played for Spurs since 2010, there have been ten players who either played for Fulham before or after their time in North London.
Perhaps most notably, given that Dimitar Berbatov left Tottenham in 2008, is central midfielder Mousa Dembele, who played 240 matches for Spurs between 2012 and 2018, after signing directly from the Cottagers.
As you can see in the table above, academy players like Ryan Fredericks and Josh Onomah rank at the bottom, with several less notable Spurs players before the top four.
It is hard to say anyone other than Dembele should be at the top, given that the Belgian star, renowned for his ability on the ball, is the only player on the list to play more than 100 games for the club, with 240, per FBref.
He was once 'irreplaceable' for Spurs, as shown in the post above from 2018, and Frank can unearth his own version of the midfielder by playing Lucas Bergvall on Saturday night.
Why Lucas Bergvall could be Tottenham's next Mousa Dembele
One of Dembele's most notable attributes during his time with Spurs was his dribbling. Speaking about his former international teammate, Youri Tielemans once said: "His dribbling was amazing, you just couldn’t take the ball off him."
He was brilliant at carrying the ball up the pitch from the middle of the park, and Bergvall is a central midfielder who can offer similar qualities for Spurs in the present day.
Per FBref, the Sweden international ranks within the top 9% of his positional peers in the Big 5 Leagues and European competitions over the last 365 days for progressive carries per 90 (2.30) and the top 2% for successful take-ons per 90 (1.55).
This shows that he is one of the most productive dribblers among central midfielders in Europe, which is why he could develop into being Frank's own version of Dembele in the middle of the park.
Bergvall, like the Belgian, does not carry a huge goal threat, having scored once in the Premier League this season, but he can get the team up the pitch with his ability to drive forward with the ball at his feet.
The Swedish star, who was dubbed a "generational talent" by the club's head of scouting Rob Mackenzie, started as part of a box midfield against PSG earlier this week, but playing further up the pitch ahead of Archie Gray and Rodrigo Bentancur restricted how much he could drive from deep.
Therefore, unleashing him in a midfield three against Fulham on Saturday could allow him to provide supporters of both teams with a reminder of a player who once starred for them.
Bergvall only attempted one dribble, which he completed, against PSG, and playing him further back on the pitch to use as a threat in transition could help Spurs to win their first Premier League game of the month this weekend.