Tottenham Hotspur stars once again made the club proud over the international break, and while the most important headline for Spurs supporters is that their best players will be heading back to North London unscathed, fans have something else to cheer about as Premier League action returns this weekend with a battle against London rivals West Ham.
Last season, the midfield was a major weakness under Ange Postecoglou, but with the hiring of Thomas Frank and the additions of Xavi Simons and Joao Palhinha from the Bundesliga, the Tottenham midfield suddenly looks like a real point of strength for Spurs in 2025 - and we haven't even seen Simons take the field yet.
The Tottenham midfield has gotten so good that with Simons in tow, key players from last season like Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall are going to be fighting for starts. And that's a great "problem" to have, especially with James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski nursing significant knee injuries.
But what makes this all even better is that Tottenham's most prominent midfield upgrade from the 2024/25 season to the 2025/26 campaign isn't even a new signing; it's a young talent who has been there all along.
Tottenham have a new box-to-box maven
Pape Matar Sarr has started the season off on a torrid pace, earning such plaudits from Tottenham fans as comparisons to N'Golo Kante. While those flattering comparisons don't really get to the heart of Sarr's playing style and what he brings to Spurs as much as they lead to social media engagements, the point stands that Sarr has been fabulous in a box-to-box role for Tottenham this season.
And he only enhanced his reputation over the international break for Senegal. Not only is he bringing the same excellent work rate, defensive contributions, progression, and all-around ability in covering all parts of the field for Senegal as he has for Tottenham, but he's also showing even more technical ability and, yes, goal scoring in a more prominent and freer role as THE current star of the Senegal national team.
To wit, Sarr came up with the game-winning goods off the bench in the 87th minute of Senegal's 3-2 victory over the DR Congo in the World Cup qualifiers, producing his second moment of sublime quality to score a goal during this international break.
Sarr had already scored a great goal four days prior in a 2-0 win over Sudan. He is showing a level of star power and technical quality for his country that Tottenham haven't really seen yet, and it's something Frank can unlock, just as he's already gotten significantly more out of the 22-year-old than Postecoglou did last seaosn.