Football365

Silly, isn’t it, to rush to judgement on transfers? We all know it can take even the very best players time to adjust to a new league or even just a new club and a new approach under a new manager with new team-mates.

Ridiculously daft to just be declaring any obviously top-quality professional footballer a bit sh*t a few months into a big next step in their career.

Here, then, are five Premier League summer signings that we think might be a bit sh*t, only one of which has subsequently played really well in a Champions League game since time of writing.

Did we learn anything from that? In the immortal words of the great folk-philosopher Homer Simpson: ‘Marge, my friend, I haven’t learned a thing.’

Xavi Simons (Tottenham)

Turned in a hugely encouraging man-of-the-match performance in a very weird 4-0 Champions League win over Copenhagen that still prompted more questions than answers.

While we finally saw real evidence of the impish, creative spark Spurs desperately need from Xavi in the continued absences of Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, the nagging doubts remain: was this game against such limited opposition a sign of Xavi finding his feet or finding his level?

The fact Wilson Odobert and Randal Kolo Muani also had their best games for Spurs suggests there’s a strong chance it might just have been quite easy.

Even Thomas Frank’s harshest critics will have accepted that withdrawing Xavi at 2-0 after Brennan Johnson’s red card just before the hour mark was an unfortunate but necessary step with a lead to protect. The fact that lock-the-game-down change precipitated the most astonishing five minutes of attacking football yet seen from Spurs in this deeply weird season again leaves us pondering just where Xavi stands in it all.

The talent is there, and he will clearly be given time and perhaps a fine game even against a team as poor as Copenhagen is all he needs to get the confidence going again. But unless and until there’s some halfway compelling evidence of it against proper teams, he is going to face inevitable questions about the Bundesliga Tax and whether he’s quite cut out for Our League, and some of those questions will be reasonable and not just ones in ridiculous terms from ridiculous gobsh*tes like Jamie O’Hara.

READ: Sorry Carragher but Joao Palhinha is the wrong Spurs player to criticise

Milos Kerkez (Liverpool)

There are more conspicuous strugglers at Liverpool, sure, but greater mitigation. Florian Wirtz has the ‘adapting to a new league and coping with insane price tag’ mitigation. Alexander Isak has the ‘messy summer with late resolution ruining pre-season’ mitigation, albeit that’s slightly more of a self-inflicted problem.

Milos Kerkez has been the real oddity among the potential flops from Liverpool’s summer business specifically because he looked the safest bet of the lot. He was the best left-back in the Premier League last season and there didn’t seem to be anything about either the defensive or attacking side of his game that indicated he was in any way unready or incapable of making the step up to an elite club.

But he’s been real, hard sh*t. Again and again. Sat out the best night of the season against Real Madrid altogether, and we’ve grown increasingly obsessed by the way Virgil van Dijk looks at him with something approaching shit-on-his-shoe disgust after every single defensive travesty that has befallen Liverpool this season. Even when it’s not actually Kerkez’s fault. Especially when it’s not actually Kerkez’s fault.

Benjamin Sesko (Manchester United)

The most predictable thing ever, wasn’t it? It’s not even about Sesko himself, really, but about whether any striker can come into the ridiculous world of Manchester United and instantly shine.

He’s got a couple of goals, but the fact even that is being treated like a pleasant surprise 10 games into the season tells you how this isn’t just shaping up as another flop for United but one that absolutely everyone saw coming.

And that includes United themselves, who now appear to be out there briefing that ‘Actually, guys, we knew this guy was going to struggle’ as if this is some kind of flex.

Sure, it’s perfectly reasonable to plan for Sesko not being able to settle in as quickly or easily as the Premier League-hardened Matheus Cunha or Bryan Mbeumo, but when you’re dropping over £70m on a player you know you really do need to become an instant first-choice pick, it’s not really much of a defence to announce that you didn’t really think it would work out that way all along.

James Trafford (Manchester City)

Some sympathy for a player who signs with a club of Man City’s size to be their first-choice keeper and then a few games in sees a genuine contender for the title of world’s best goalkeeper come through the doors.

Trafford, having played in each of City’s three opening games of the Premier League season, has been restricted to just a couple of Carabao run-outs in the two months since Gianluigi Donnarumma’s arrival at the Etihad.

But let’s not also pretend Trafford is an innocent victim. He was quite cack in those early games, and the numbers are stark. City lost two of the three games Trafford played, conceding four goals, at least one of which was directly his fault.

Donnarumma hasn’t been flawless by any stretch, but in the seven subsequent games City have won five and lost only once while only conceding a further four goals.

Trafford’s uncertainty and inability to inspire the necessary confidence in a title-chasing defence didn’t help his cause, however unlucky he might be given the unexpected nature of Donnarumma’s sudden availability on the market.

Jamie Gittens (Chelsea)

Already the fear is there that this is another exciting young footballer turned grist for the Chelsea mill, another talent lost in the churn of the Clearlake approach to player trading.

He’s had plenty of minutes across Chelsea’s season, which is already a confusing one in its own right, but his only goal involvements so far have come in the Carabao and a thumping win over Ajax in the Champions League.

His cameo contributions in the Premier League, where not one of his eight appearances have lasted longer than an hour, have been distinctly underwhelming.

To be fair, he will probably survive the Stamford Bridge experience. He will probably still have a perfectly decent career, but it probably won’t be at Chelsea, who also won’t care at all as they inexplicably turn a £15m profit when selling him to some Bundesliga club or other in January 2027.

Jamie Carragher’s war on defensive midfielders has acquired another adversary but his criticism of Joao Palhinha could not be further from the truth.

As part of his Monday Night Football punditry duties, Carragher was passing verdict on the weekend’s Premier League action when he decided to take issue with Spurs’ summer signing Palhinha.

Ignoring the £50m Xavi Simons’ poor start, Carragher instead suggested Palhinha did not have the “quality” to be a midfielder for a side like Spurs.

“We spoke about courage; now we can talk about quality. Palhinha hasn’t got the quality,” Carragher said.

“For a player playing for Tottenham in central midfield, for me, that’s a pass you have to be able to make. He can’t make it.

“So even though I’m being critical of it, saying he hasn’t quite got the ability, he’s actually done okay for Tottenham in terms of his job, but they go back, listen to the boos.

“The only reason he does a clever turn on the ball is because of the boos. Again, Palhinha is on the ball, five touches because he hasn’t got the confidence or the ability.

“What you’ve got is you’ve got a lack of courage and confidence from certain players, but you’ve also got a lack of ability of certain players.”

Carragher’s suggestion that Spurs should not be playing the Portuguese midfielder is a strange one simply because almost everyone else agrees that Palhinha is exactly the sort of player they needed.

MORE ON SPURS ON F365

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👉 Spurs have ‘rag-tag mess of bodies’; Frank cannot ‘wash out two-bobness’

Last season under Ange Postecoglou, control was an alien concept, and the Australian’s uber-aggressive high line often left Rodrigo Bentancur, who is far more attack-minded than Palhinha, scrambling as oppositions countered. At this stage last season, Tottenham had let in 11 goals. Now, that tally is down to eight.

When Postecoglou was given the boot, Spurs appointed a manager in Thomas Frank who is far less willing to give up control of a game. The high line and pass out from the back at all costs were dropped and as a result, Spurs have conceded the second fewest goals in the league this season.

And if Frank were to sit down and single out which one player had been the most crucial to that change, Joao Palhinha would be at the top of any list.

To be fair to Carragher, he was used to playing behind the likes of Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard who could pick a pass while also getting a tackle in, but Palhinha has not been brought in for his ability to pick out a Hollywood ball; his job is to stop the opposition.

Since arriving from Bayern Munich on loan in the summer, Palhinha has made the most tackles of any player in the Premier League, averaging 5.1 a game. He is in the top 3% for duels won per game, and Spurs have conceded 0.8 goals a game, a tally only bettered by their north London rivals. Spurs’ games are no longe frantic basketball-type affairs and three league lossess this year have been by a single-goal margin.

Carragher’s individual criticism of Palhinha is taking aim at exactly the wrong player because Palhinha is doing all the things he was brought in to do. Goals have also been a welcome bonus, with the 30-year-old scoring twice in the league and once in the Champions League against Copenhagen on Tuesday.

Carragher’s criticisms should instead be directed at Palhinha’s midfield team-mates. A pre-season injury to James Maddison forced Spurs back into the transfer market, and they pulled off what everyone thought was a coup in Xavi Simons. Two months later though, and while Florian Wirtz may have taken the title of ‘expensive midfielders yet to hit the ground running’, Simons’ performances have been far more concerning.

In his 458 minutes of league action, Simons has registered zero goals and just one assist. On average, he has an xG of 0.05 – which is in the bottom 15% for the league – and has created a little over one chance a game, a dribble success rate of 41.2% from just 1.38 attempts a game, and while he has had 298 touches of the ball, just eight of those have been in the opposition box. To put that into context, he has been dispossessed more times with nine.

Simons may have more ‘quality’ than Palhinha in Carragher’s eyes but when those moments are so fleeting, a more consistent player is always going to be preferred by the manager.

Blaming Palhinha for Spurs’ problems feels a bit like blaming whoever cooked the potatoes for a poor Christmas roast while the turkey is dry and burnt.

They are 15th in expected goals, with the same ranking for shots on target per match. They have had the fifth most touches in the opposition box but have consistently been unable to find a way through.

Another derby defeat to Chelsea saw them record a well-publicised 0.05 xG, but blaming Palhinha for that is pointing the finger at the one player in Spurs’ midfield actually doing their job.

Tottenham star Micky van de Ven has explained what really happened in the aftermath of their 1-0 loss to Chelsea after being accused of snubbing Thomas Frank.

After the final whistle of their defeat to the Blues, Van de Ven and Spence seemingly ignored Frank’s suggestion that they should go over to the fans.

Tottenham boss Frank then gave the Spurs pair an angry stare as they walked down the tunnel with the clip blowing up on social media.

Micah Richards and other pundits have criticised Van de Ven and Spence with the former Manchester City defender calling them “disgraceful”.

But Van de Ven insists the incident has been blown out of proportion with the Tottenham duo just annoyed at their performance.

Van de Ven said on Tuesday: “Of course it’s the past so I don’t want to make it bigger than it is. Djed and I walked [off], we were just frustrated after the game and everything got really exploded by the media, it was nothing big to be honest. Everyone thinks it was the gaffer, there was nothing to do with the gaffer.

READ: Neville issues warning over future Man City transfer while Arsenal break Spurs record

“We were just frustrated after the game because of a bad performance from myself as well. We want to play well and I didn’t play well in my opinion, so I was just frustrated and I just wanted to go quickly inside. As I said it got exploded by the media out of nowhere.”

Spurs defender Van de Ven scored an incredible solo goal in a 4-0 win over Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday with Frank joking that the centre-back turned into Lionel Messi.

Frank told reporters: “It seems like we had Lionel Messi turned into Micky van de Ven, roaring down from his own goal all the way to the other end and scored a fantastic goal. I think he’s our top scorer in all competitions, so he can keep going. He can keep walking past me if he’s angry after a game!”

MORE SPURS COVERAGE ON F365…

👉 Van de Ven brilliance delays more Spurs ridicule as internal ‘desperation’ justified before Man Utd

👉 Spurs have ‘rag-tag mess of bodies’; Frank cannot ‘wash out two-bobness’

👉 Arsenal lose, United beat Spurs, City beat Liverpool: Five things to mitigate the worst interlull ever

Reacting to Tottenham’s performance against the Danish side, Van de Ven added: “The fans were good tonight and I think also it helped that we played a good performance. Saturday was really frustrating.

“We played a derby at home against Chelsea and it’s a massive game for us but also for the fans, we didn’t play really well as a team, it was a bad performance from our side. We needed to bounce back in a positive way and I think we did that really well.”

Top scorer Micky van de Ven papered over the blatant cracks at Tottenham Hotspur by netting a remarkable goal of the season contender vs FC Copenhagen.

Thomas Frank had his first severe low as Spurs head coach on Saturday as his side were on the end of a rare 1-0 thumping, having recorded their second-lowest ever xG (0.1) in a Premier League match.

In the aftermath of this shambolic Tottenham display, justified pitchforks were being directed at Frank and his “League Two team” as their current sixth-place standing in the Premier League does not tell the whole story amid their woes at home and alarming lack of a goal threat.

Therefore, Spurs and Frank are fortunate that they had the simplest of opportunities to earn their first home win since their September 24 victory over League One side Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday, with visitors FC Copenhagen yet to beat an English side away.

The north London outfit’s misfiring attackers also had the chance to build confidence against charitable opponents, as Copenhagen had conceded two or more goals in their last five Champions League games and 14 overall.

And Copenhagen’s fragility was evident as Tottenham took the lead around the 20-minute mark.

READ: Arsenal lose, United beat Spurs, City beat Liverpool: Five things to mitigate the worst interlull ever

Spurs made a bright opening to the game as they penned Copenhagen in their half, with the away side picked off as soon as they committed men forward.

Classy Rodrigo Bentancur collected a loose pass and laid it off to summer signing Xavi Simons, who sent Brennan Johnson running with a lofted through ball. Goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski compounded the initial error by brainlessly rushing out of his area only to be rounded by the Spurs winger, who did well to convert into an open goal from a tight angle.

This gift afforded Tottenham the perfect platform to kick on and build a commanding lead, but they failed to take advantage before the break.

Simons, who has been likened to Antony, has been given a kicking in recent days, but he was at the heart of all of Tottenham’s good moments and should have had a second assist following a superb interchange with Wilson Odobert, though Randal Kolo Muani dragged his shot wide from close range.

Kolo Muani had an even better chance to get off the mark for Spurs seconds before the break, with Simons’ expert delivery setting up a free header inside ten yards that was sent over the bar by the out-of-form striker.

These lapses would have been punished had Tottenham been facing stronger opposition, as the hosts were slack in defence and had the same number of shots on target (two) in the opening half despite having 67% possession.

But just as Spurs started to risk the wrath of their frustrated supporters, Kotarski gave them another helping as they doubled their lead.

The calamitous goalkeeper poorly misjudged a loose long ball from Pedro Porro as Kolo Muani beat him to the punch before showing good composure to assist Odobert to score from close range. It didn’t make up for his earlier misses, but it was a quality piece of play from the striker who sorely needs a goal.

Minutes later, Johnson’s red card for a rash and needless sliding challenge threatened to set up a particularly Spursy end to this match, but their two centre-backs, who happen to be among their most dangerous attackers, ensured that didn’t happen.

Firstly, top scorer Micky van de Ven netted his sixth goal of the 2025/26 campaign, with this one of the most remarkable you will see all season. Bonus points to anyone who hears the X-rated off-mic comment from a rather startled Spurs fan after the road runner clinically converted…

Naturally, this encouraged fellow centre-back Cristian Romero to give himself a nosebleed as almost right from kick-off, the Tottenham captain advanced into the penalty area and assisted Joao Palhinha for his fourth goal of the season.

Richarlison struck the bar with a penalty in stoppage time to prevent Spurs from hitting Copenhagen for five, but this is still the biggest win for Frank at his new club.

It provides Frank and his team with a much-needed injection of optimism as they got the result they were craving, though Van de Ven’s moment of individual brilliance does somewhat paper over the cracks that would have been exposed had they faced an adequate opponent.

Barring an impressive performance from Simons, the same issues remain as Kolo Muani’s failings in front of goal and their overall lack of cohesion justify the reported internal ‘desperation’ for ‘new attackers in January’, so Spurs cannot get carried away by this display unless they answer questions against Manchester United at the weekend.

Thomas Frank is only problem 137 on a long list at Spurs; he is pretty much absolved of any blame for that mess of a squad.

We also have thoughts on Šeško v Gyokeres as we build towards the Champions League. Watch some football and then mail theeditor@football365.com

Absolving Thomas Frank of most Spurs blame

This is a Tottenham team unlike any for a very long time. I’m going back to maybe 2008 when Berbatov and Keane left, leaving Spurs with no talisman. Ledley King, much loved as he is, wasn’t that man because, well the lack of knee mostly.

Since that time Spurs can call upon an array of some of the world’s best players; Modric, Bale, Kane and Son being the most glaringly obvious, but equally so Vertonghen and Alderwiereld. Walker and Eriksen. Dembele and, for three season, an outrageous Dele Alli.

Now though there is nobody who’d you say with confidence will grab the game by the scruff of the neck, and through sheer will, make the other ten players a foot taller, a mile faster…there simply is no one.

Palhinha is a very good player at what he does. But that is who he is. No more than that. Bergvall, Sarr and Kudus all have qualities but the drop-off from there is astonishing. And not without spending a serious wedge on the dross too.

Injuries to Solanke (not mentioned in the Topical Top Ten despite his loss being huge), Maddison and Kulusevski are all well and done, that is until it’s flagged that the latter two were always going to be long-term absentees, and I dare say won’t return to anything like their old selves. Solanke has suffered various injuries since joining, and the club left an operation for over a month so he’s now been unavailable for at least four weeks longer.

Frank is far from blameless but this mess of a squad predates his arrival by some distance.

Dan Mallerman

…I’m not sure your article on Frank being ‘small time’ for Spurs is entirely fair. It’s the club who is small and has been for ages.

It’s an Augean Stables task to wash out the two-bobness out of Spurs. We’ve had decades of ‘Meh’, mediocrity, punts and ‘will this do’. And worse we’ve overpaid for every player to do it.

My faves:

Selling Elvis and buying the Dave Clark Five.

Spending 21 million, Erik Lamela and Bryan Gil to sign Bryan Gil.

Having at one time nearly 250 million of players out on loan.

Breaking our transfer record for Sissoko an incredibly limited midfielder who was desperate to sign for Arsenal. On, obviously 10 minutes to midnight, deadline day.

Haggling over Berbatov for months to gain an extra 2 million and replacing him on deadline day with no-one.

Selling Robbie Keane as well leaving coach Ramos 40 goals short at the start of the season.

Buying a beloved coach who had got us to a CL final and nearly won the league who was publicly begging for players to refresh his squad no-one for 18 months.

Acquiring Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen to boost our title tilt..

Paying ANYTHING for Rasiak.

Renewing Timo Werner’s loan

Low-balling players like Grealish, Eze, Trossard etc so they would rather gouge their own eyes out than sign for us

Making Tel’s loan permanent despite precisely ZERO evidence he’s actually a footballer.

Ben Davies was signed as our back up left/centre back a decade ago and still is.

Worst of all having a generational player, effectively free, and never buying anyone of remotely comparable quality in a decade to go with him. (Yes we love Son, but he didn’t get off to a flyer)

And we’re left with going from a true premiership winning calibre team in the Toby/Hugo/Kane/Son days to a rag-tag mess of bodies that don’t add up to anything, apart from a stack of burning cash. Levy would never have entertained buying mediocre beer-pumps or go-karts, so why is it OK for players?

All this ‘penny pinching’ came at an extortionate rate. Tel, Oderbert, Solanke, Richarlison and Johnson is the thick end a quarter of a billion quid of bang average.

The Lewises I wish them luck, if they are ambitious I hope they have got an army of those specialist crime scene cleaners and a lot of wire-brushes to scrub the smallness out of us. When the stench of his Levy is finally gone, we hopefully realise that the metric of sport is winning, not your fixtures and fittings.

So ultimately, I think Frank deserves a chance. When the club can gain some ambition and coherence, we’ll know where we’re at. And besides he’s only problem 137 on a long list.

As ever a saga then. But one night, we had Johnson’s shin, an even worse opponent and Mickey was a teleporting ninja. So, as ever, we live in hope.

Dom, Florence

READ: Arsenal lose, United beat Spurs, City beat Liverpool: Five things to mitigate the worst interlull ever

Newcastle shell-shocked

Hi James, the reason is Celtic pumped them so badly in Glasgow during pre-season that the whole squad just haven’t gotten over it yet. Even Isak who must have seen it coming and fucked off back down the road before kick off is still rattled by it.

Finlay x

On Šeško v Gyokeres: Three months in

Twas the season of seasonal rumours, the murmurings of the transfer window sounding like the chirping of a Stock Exchange as the Šeško vs Gyökeres debate raged on in Arsenal Fan Pages across mediums all and sundry…

Three months on, and it is now plainly obvious that Don Berta and his fledglings saw what we now know as fact, something that fans could not see, basing their opinio-facts on hastily compiled youtube videos by pre-pubescent teens with a penchant for direccione.

Make no mistake about it, Šeško is and will remain a tremendous prospect, and may the kid from the Balkans make a success of his transfer still, but these three months have shown that the two players are vastly different in their mental profiles. A few factoids stand out:

– Šeško in characteristic Balkan bravado claiming his teammates believe he is better than Haaland

– Šeško turning up to training in the fanciest of jeeps

– Šeško dropping his shoulders the first few matches he was thrown into, struck by lightning twice, first at the physicality and competitiveness of old Barclays, and the disjointed nature of United’s game

On the other hand, Gyökeres, already having gone through earlier spells across different leagues being branded a failure at different points in his career, putting his head down and putting in the hard graft day in day out in subterranean prisons and pits, being jeered at by the dregs of society, not letting any criticism get to him. Exemplified by his celebration of the mask, described by him on Instagram by the iconic dialogue by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises: “nobody cared who i was until I put on the mask”.

As Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in The Black Swan, if you meet two doctors in the same prestigious hospital, a good-looking chap nicely dressed with degrees from Harvard, and another who looks like a veritable butcher collecting his degrees from places with questionable credentials, always go for the latter, as the proverbial butcher has overcome many more obstacles than the Harvard graduate, without the benefit good looks accord, to get to where he has. As Nietzsche once said, “How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft.”

Therefore, anyone who has been told they will never amount to nothing, that their failures define them, and that they are not good enough, the redemptive arc of Gyökeres is one story we all want to believe in so hard that we may make it come true through sheer force of volition itself! And it is these arcs that make us love football, the only true spiritual reprieve of the modern world, akin to Greek drama and tragedy, replete with its characters honourable who fall from grace, and imperfect heroes who overcome all odds to become immortal gods.

Long live the Barclays!

Shahzad, Pakistani exiled in Le Balkans (trying to bring some class back to the mailbox)

Annoying football phrases

In answer to Steven McBain’s email, I offer the below:

Spraying passes around like the quarterback

Breaking the lines

And absolutely anything to do with transitions.

C, The South

…I can assure you as an avid reader of this website, the most annoying phrase is:

“Mick Brown, who remains well connected in the Premier League”

We’re worried, okay? We’re worried that we might be about to embark upon the dreariest and dullest interlull of all time.

It is, frankly, a perfect storm of interlull dullness, as you can see from our quick Interlull Dullness Survey here.

Is it the November international break, the third in quick succession and thus by definition always the hardest to drag yourself through? Yes.

Are England’s games entirely meaningless? You bet your Anglo-centric arse and anus England’s games are entirely meaningless.

Are any big clubs currently in the very deepest depths of crisis and/or plausibly about to sack their manager? They are not.

Have the press already gleefully signalled their intention to make this The Bellingham Interlull at all costs and in all circumstances no matter what happens? Yes, with massive great knobs on.

It’s going to be just awful. There is probably nothing that can be done to save it or us, but here are five things that we desperately now want to happen over the days ahead in the forlorn hope it might at least mitigate the barrenness of the wasteland stretching out before us.

Tottenham losing to Man United

Famously something that Tottenham don’t really do anymore, their four wins against Manchester United last season even going so far as the truly absurd lengths of delivering a trophy to N17, but a lot has changed in the weeks and months since That Night in Bilbao.

Man United’s recovery from deepest and darkest crisis still hasn’t been enough to get that lad a haircut after the 2-2 draw at Forest, but it’s still delivered 10 points in four games and that will very much do. And Liverpool’s win over Villa last week has taken the edge off slightly at Anfield.

It’s going to be hard to concoct a full crisis for any of the Big Six now, but our best bet might be Thomas Frank over at Spurs after the most small-time ‘big club’ home performance in living memory against Chelsea. The initial plan appeared to be to play for a goalless draw and then, when that didn’t work out, play for a 1-0 defeat. It’s a mad plan for Spurs at home to absolutely anyone, but especially a Chelsea side that absolutely isn’t all that having lost to Sunderland the previous weekend and then nearly contrived all sorts of unpleasantness at desperate Wolves in the Carabao.

Frank absolutely needs a result and a performance against United to silence some of the increasingly loud doubts and also at least start to turn around that laughably poor home form, albeit only some of which – but an inevitably increasing amount – has come on his watch.

Lose to United for the first time in over three years, and Spurs will drop back into mid-table where, frankly, their performances deserve to have them. Do it in anything like a repeat of the drab, ambition-free nature of the Chelsea defeat and suddenly there’s a story to fill the void and an awkward couple of weeks for Frank before the blessed relief of another away game. Which is at Arsenal. Oof.

Man City beating Liverpool, heavily if possible

Not sure City can be plunged easily back into crisis, but we’re damn sure Liverpool can. Nothing about the way a team that has conceded 14 goals already in the Premier League this season has gone about their defending suggests they are in any way ready to cope with Erling Haaland in his current preposterous pomp, so there really is every chance for a silly high-scoring game here that does much to sustain us through the days and nights that follow.

Is a wild 5-3 in the last Premier League game for 13 days really too much to ask? We say no. No it is not. More defensive calamity. More Virgil van Dijk looking daggers at Milos Kerkez and wondering how it’s all come to this. More Haaland doing the robot.

While we’re being greedy, we’ll take a Salah hat-trick at the other end as well, please. We just want a Super Sunday headliner that legitimately has enough going on to fill the next three days’ discourse. We won’t ask for anything ever again. Not until March anyway.

We will grudgingly accept the reverse outcome – as we would with Spurs-United, to be fair – if it’s large and compelling and above all funny enough. But it really does feel like Spurs and Liverpool are our best crisis bets this weekend, the sheer futility of trying to predict what Chelsea might get up to having now been firmly established.

READ: Arsenal top, Wolves bottom, Liverpool being sh*t and other inevitable things we should have seen coming

Arsenal coming unstuck at Sunderland

Perhaps the greediest and unlikeliest request of the lot, but the less ridiculously we are able to spend the interlull kidding ourselves on that there might still be a title race, the better.

It’s another factor, really, in why City beating Liverpool is better than the other way round, because City are currently that precious one point closer to the runaway leaders, which means any result other than a City win just means that Arsenal lead getting bigger again.

Unless, and hear us out because it is technically possible, Arsenal don’t beat Sunderland. These lads are fourth in the league, after all. We really shouldn’t just be assuming Arsenal definitely beat them, even though assuming Arsenal definitely beat pretty much anyone feels entirely fair at this point what with the twin superpowers of never facing any shots on their own goal and always scoring at least one p*ss-boiling set-piece at the other.

But maybe the chaotic and unexpected energy of Sunderland is just the thing to derail the serene Mikel Arteta machine. And for our own something-to-fill-the-void requirements, the greater the prominence of Granit Xhaka in any such spanner-in-the-works behaviour the better.

Someone, anyone, losing heavily in a six-pointer

The fixture computer has deigned in her infinite wisdom and great mischievous magnificence to grant us not just two Big Six encounters upon this sacred final weekend before another bastard break, but also at least two relegation six-pointers. We thank her and make offerings to her glory.

You can chuck in Everton v Fulham if you want to make mischief, but it’s unlikely that anything there can really shift the needle enough. The big ones are West Ham v Burnley on Saturday afternoon, and Nottingham Forest v Leeds on Sunday.

We don’t care who steps up to heroically take the fall, we just need one of you four to get absolutely battered to keep the Sack Race nice and lively for the next 10 days. Please and thank you.

Thomas Tuchel picking Jude Bellingham

We’ve thought long and hard about this one. In truth, there is absolutely no universe now where this international break isn’t Bellingham Week. No timeline where Mediawatch isn’t sighing and repeating itself from the last international break, which was literally five f*cking minutes ago.

There’s no avoiding it, all we can hope to do is to mitigate the extent of the nonsense. And we reckon the best chance is if Tuchel does pick him this time.

Because if Bellingham is in the squad, at least the Bellingham Week stories that follow will have to make some kind of superficial nod to real-world events that actually happen rather than the press pack having completely free rein to just make up the narrative.

Which brings us to the further mitigating requirements required here to try and damp down the crazy. First, Bellingham will need to play some part in the games and be quite good but not too good. If he’s conspicuously good or conspicuously bad, it’s all too easy for it to naturally become the dominant narrative anyway. Bellingham isn’t really a footballer who does ‘quietly effective’ but we are really going to need him to try.

And if that can happen with the barest minimum of any accompanying behaviour that can be spun as Billy Big Bollocks antics, again it would really help.

Obviously, there’s no actual proper solution here. Anything he does (or doesn’t do) will still constitute a display of true colours or the speaking of volumes but the more egregiously the media has to reach for it the better. Don’t be giving them any ammunition.

Tottenham Hotspur looked like a “League Two team” against Chelsea on Saturday, according to Jamie Carragher, who says he worries for Thomas Frank.

Frank has been heavily criticised for his side’s performance as Tottenham fell to a third home defeat in five Premier League games this season.

Tottenham in the 2025/26 Premier League: Key statistics

Average 1.01 xG per 90 minutes

The Londoners are bizarrely the best away team in the Premier League this campaign but have been miserable at home, winning only one of their five games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

This leaves Spurs 17th in the Premier League home table, the same position they finished in the overall table under Ange Postecoglou last season.

It’s impossible to pinpoint one exact reason why Frank’s side have struggled at home, and when analysing their form, Liverpool legend Carragher said the former Brentford manager will probably feel much of the criticism is unwarranted.

He said on Monday Night Football: “He may be looking at it and thinking, I don’t know where all this is coming from. ‘We’re doing really well in the league; this team finished 17th last season. We went into the weekend as the highest scorers in the league.’”

Spurs ‘like a League Two team’ against Chelsea – Carragher

Carragher then compared Frank to other managers who made the step up from smaller Premier League clubs to one of the big boys.

Managers like Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Nuno Espirito Santo struggled after making that leap with a pragmatic approach, and there’s a fear Frank could experience the same fate.

“A big problem for Thomas Frank and other managers who make that jump from a smaller team in the Premier League to one of the big boys, especially when they’re seen as pragmatic coaches, is actually bringing the football to these teams,” Carragher added.

“He might look at it and think there’s not a lot wrong, but when you watch the game at the weekend and what the supporters have seen, that was like watching a League Two team against a Premier League team in the FA Cup.”

Carragher said the difference in quality was clear for all to see.

“When you look at the stats — and people who watched the game on Saturday Night Football — there was a huge contrast with the ball, and that is the biggest challenge for any coach making that jump from a team in the bottom half of the Premier League to one of the big boys.”

Do Spurs lack progressive midfielders?

Managers rarely want to move away from the philosophy that earned them their big job, but that pragmatic style isn’t what supporters of clubs like Tottenham or Liverpool expect to see.

There was too much long-ball football from “League Two Spurs” against Chelsea, with Frank’s side lacking both “courage” and a deep-lying midfielder capable of playing passes between the lines.

It’s hard to argue with the latter point. Joao Palhinha is a destroyer, not a playmaker, Rodrigo Bentancur is more box-to-box and physical over technical, and Pape Matar Sarr is a superb ball carrier, but not someone you’d expect to split defences open or play line-breaking passes.

“These three midfield players, that is not a midfield to progress the ball through the lines and get it to who’s essentially your number 10. That’s not right,” Carragher said.

READ: ‘Hasn’t got the ability’: Carragher blasts Spurs man ‘lacking quality’ and ‘not capable’

“But what I didn’t like again was the lack of courage. I’ve seen players do that all my life, they mark themselves so they don’t have to get the ball. They can say, ‘I couldn’t get it, I was marked.’

“You see Bentancur telling the goalkeeper to take his time, relax. No, he should be moving and getting into position to get on the ball.

“Then the ball goes long again. This worried me watching; it wasn’t difficult to get out. It wasn’t a full man-to-man press from Chelsea, and the ball just goes long. You see all the players pointing, knock it long, knock it long.

“Now I’m talking about a lack of courage, about helping your teammate. Sarr is running with the ball and he’s in trouble. He needs help. The two central midfielders and [Micky] van de Ven have got to read the game, knowing he’s going to need help or he’s going to lose the ball.”

Carragher then expanded on Spurs’ style under Frank, and why he’s concerned.

“I tell you, the manager who can coach this is [Enzo] Maresca — and we’ve seen a lot of this from Chelsea.

“When you talk about rotations, that’s what the managers at the top level can really do. Pep Guardiola, Arne Slot, Mikel Arteta, Maresca — they can coach the rotations and movements. So is it a question of the manager or the players? That would be a worry.

“For Thomas Frank, going forward, when you think of pragmatic managers in the past who’ve made that jump from a smaller club to a bigger club, that has always been the problem — can they coach the rotations and build-up play to break the lines?

“I worry for Thomas Frank, who, by the way, is still off to a really good start. But in terms of what the bigger club wants, I look at Sam Allardyce going to Newcastle — Premier League games at his new club dropped to 21, because of the style and the talk about attacking football.

“It’s also about the players they bring in. We’re talking about Thomas Frank bringing in Palhinha. David Moyes brought in [Marouane] Fellaini — again, not quite the player you’d expect.

“Fans just wouldn’t accept the style of football. So I think for Thomas Frank, he’s got to be mindful of that. Not every manager is great at everything. We know he’s great at set-pieces and organisation.

“We’ve had him on this show talking about Brentford and how he has to move the needle going forward in terms of their football. If he’s not the man to coach that, maybe he needs someone on his staff who can, because Spurs will need to implement that going forward if he’s going to be a success.

“Perhaps just 10 games into his spell at Spurs, he’s confident he’ll be able to find that home form and build that connection with the fans, which has been missing.”

Will Thomas Frank last at Spurs?

Winning at home against Wolves, or at least being competitive in a London derby, should be bread and butter for a Spurs manager, and it’s vitally important that Frank finds a solution.

The foundations are clearly there away from home, so once Frank and his coaching team discover the winning formula at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, confidence will grow that he is the man for the job, capable of making the jump from Brentford to a Big Six club.

Answering the question ‘Will Thomas Frank last at Spurs?’ is pure guesswork at this early stage. What we do know is that he’s an excellent coach, with superb man-management skills and a calm, assured presence in front of the media.

Transferring those qualities onto the pitch is another story. There’s reason for optimism, but Carragher is right, Spurs lack a No.6 or No.8 capable of dictating games and playing those decisive, line-breaking passes.

It’s also worth remembering that James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski have been injured all season, while £51million summer signing Xavi Simons has yet to make a real impact in a Spurs shirt.

Copenhagen at home in the Champions League is a must-win game for Spurs, and victory in that competition would be another clear sign that Frank can make the step up.

It’s a step that Nuno Espirito Santo also took when he left Wolves for Spurs in 2021, but he lasted less than four months, despite winning Premier League Manager of the Month for August.

Frank will hope to avoid the same fate as the former Wolves boss.

Trent Alexander-Arnold returns to Anfield in white, and Liverpool are trying to convince everyone they’re fine again after finally finding some form against the stooges of Aston Villa.

There’s no shortage of narratives this midweek, with Alexander-Arnold’s Real Madrid back at Anfield in the Champions League and holders Paris Saint-Germain hosting their biggest threat to the throne, Bayern Munich.

Tottenham Hotspur have a huge clash with Copenhagen after being booed off against Chelsea, while Rangers and Coventry City are both looking to bounce back from weekend defeats.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are all in action too, but somehow, they’ve all missed the cut for a jam-packed Big Midweek.

Player to watch: Trent Alexander-Arnold

There’s no guarantee that Trent Alexander-Arnold will start for Real Madrid at Anfield to face Liverpool, but there’s a chance nonetheless. That’s enough for us.

It’s the biggest story of the week by far, with Alexander-Arnold viewed as a traitor by many Liverpool fans after he denied them a fee by walking to Madrid on a free transfer at the end of his contract.

There’s not much to say about the England right-back that hasn’t already been said, but the prospect of him actually lacing up to face Liverpool at Anfield is incredible. He doesn’t deserve the boos he’ll inevitably receive, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him struggle under the daunting Anfield lights as an opposition player.

There were even Liverpool fans who revelled in his latest injury setback — which occurred in the opening minutes of Trent’s Champions League debut for Los Blancos against Marseille, when he pulled up with a sore hamstring. Thankfully, Alexander-Arnold has recovered just in time to be considered for selection against his former club.

It’s not Alexander-Arnold’s fitness that’s the concern, it’s whether or not he should even start. The Champions League is an opportunity for Xabi Alonso to rotate, and after being an unused substitute in Madrid’s last two La Liga games, there could be a change at right-back, with Federico Valverde potentially moving back into midfield after helping his side win 4-0 against Valencia.

Trent starting against Marseille suggests Alonso wants him to play in Europe, and while he is paid a lot of money to do a job against anyone, the Madrid boss might consider keeping him out of the firing line. Then again, Alonso will want his best players on the pitch.

We just know it’s going to be juicy. And that’s all we’re here for.

And you can watch it for free...

Team to watch: Liverpool

Speaking of Liverpool and their match against Real Madrid…

Bouncing back against Aston Villa was crucial for Arne Slot and his players after losing six of their last seven games, and doing so while keeping their third clean sheet of the season sets them up perfectly for an extremely difficult match on Tuesday.

Mohamed Salah has now scored in consecutive Premier League games and Ryan Gravenberch is back in the side, which cannot be underestimated. His calming presence in midfield goes a long way to making Slot’s Liverpool look much more composed and calm, in and out of possession.

He has to start against Madrid, and it wouldn’t be a shock if Slot’s side are unchanged. Despite rotation being important, momentum and confidence are key at this stage. Liverpool need to prove they are still contenders for the Premier League and Champions League, and are through the other side of a historically poor run of form.

It’s a huge week in general for the Premier League champions, who face Manchester City on Sunday. It’s not a season-defining week for the Reds, but their results will provide a huge indication of where they’ll be at the end of 2025/26.

Liverpool vs Real Madrid predictions: Liverpool’s revival will be tested by Europe’s form team

Game to watch: Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich

It’s just a belting tie, isn’t it? It’s definitely the best thing about the transformation from a group to a league phase.

The rematch of the 2020 lockdown final is now a clash between the two favourites for the 2025/26 title, and it’s not hard to see why. Bayern are currently nine from nine in the Bundesliga and look as dominant as ever with Harry Kane flying under Vincent Kompany, while PSG are unsurprisingly top of Ligue 1. Farmers’ leagues be farming, folks.

The fixture really does all the talking for us, but similar to Liverpool and their week ahead, the result here could say a lot about both teams — more about the winner, anyway. Losing won’t make either of them pretenders instead of contenders, especially when Arsenal brushed PSG aside in last season’s league phase before losing to the eventual winners in the semi-final.

You’d probably fancy Bayern to win if they were at home, but in Paris? Who knows? Let’s just hope for an entertaining 90 minutes. With the lack of jeopardy involved for these two European Goliaths, it’s hard to imagine it being anything but entertaining.

Manager to watch: Thomas Frank

Questions are being asked about Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur after a limp home defeat to London rivals Chelsea on Saturday, with a clip of Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven snubbing their manager after the full-time whistle surfacing on social media. It wasn’t a good look and sent out all the wrong messages, even if it was just two footballers being p*ssed off after losing an important game.

It’s already water under the bridge, which is fantastic news ahead of a very winnable Champions League match for Spurs against FC Copenhagen.

Spurs, in truth, were handed an absolute beauty of a league phase schedule, but edging past Villarreal at home before lucky draws at Bodo/Glimt and AS Monaco is a very underwhelming — albeit unbeaten — start.

Pressure is on Frank to make Spurs look like an exciting team, and working out how to get the best out of £51million summer signing Xavi Simons would go a long way. There’s a plethora of attacking talent in Frank’s squad, but we’re yet to really see anything to prove that statement.

Not only that, but Frank really needs to sort out his side’s confusingly abysmal home form. Sixth in the Premier League after 10 games under the former Brentford boss is pretty good going, but winning at home to Wolves should be your bread and butter.

Spurs are 17th in the home table this season with one win from five games, but are top with four wins and one draw when playing away from their beautiful stadium.

Copenhagen are obviously a good side — good enough to be in the Champions League — but they are the Wolves of the competition. Spurs will be botching the most favourable league phase draw imaginable if they don’t make light work of the Danes on Tuesday.

READ: Thomas Frank is small-timing the Spurs job and that could kill him

EFL game to watch: Coventry v Sheffield United

Knowing the Championship, Coventry’s first defeat of the season will probably be followed by an awful run of form, with questions asked of Frank Lampard only weeks after he was the best thing since sliced bread. It’s just how things work in that crazy league.

Coventry were unbeaten after 12 Championship games, which is an almighty impressive start to the season, but it’s a relentless division and even a home match against a shocking Sheffield United side feels like a potential banana skin. It was only Wrexham’s fourth league win of the season and came via a Kieffer Moore hat-trick from 1-0 down. Seriously, anything is possible.

The Blades can also earn their fourth win of the campaign on Tuesday evening but are on a two-match losing run after winning three from five following Chris Wilder’s return. Looking at this game the other way, they are shipping goals for fun and Coventry have scored a frankly ridiculous 36 goals already this term, so it could be a mauling as Coventry bounce back from Friday evening’s drama at the Racecourse Ground.

Europa game to watch: Rangers v AS Roma

Rangers have been snuck in, so this will be short and sweet.

Roma have been very, very good this season. Atalanta legend Gian Piero Gasperini has come in and steadied the ship with some brilliant results, with Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at second-place AC Milan only their third from 10 in Serie A.

Gasperini’s side take on a dejected Rangers team at Ibrox in the Europa League, where they haven’t found much success — winning one and losing two. That’s not as bad as rock-bottom Rangers, whose first game under new boss Danny Rohl was a 4-0 battering at Brann.

Despite that heavy defeat to Brann and losing 3-1 after extra time against Celtic in the semi-final of the League Cup, this is Rohl’s biggest test yet. There’s nothing like a rocking Ibrox on a Thursday night, if the supporters are behind the man in the dugout, which they are…for now.

We should see a comfortable night for Roma or one of those special Ibrox nights. Either way, it’s must-watch football.

Jamie Carragher believes Joao Palhinha “hasn’t got the quality” to play for Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank knew exactly what he was getting when he signed Palhinha from Bayern Munich: a midfield destroyer, not a playmaker.

Joao Palhinha: 2025/26 Premier League statistics

Palhinha was overlooked by the Premier League elite during his impressive time at Sporting and later at Fulham, until Bayern Munich bought him for around £45m after two seasons in England.

It didn’t work out for the Portuguese midfielder in Germany, but he did win a Bundesliga title in his only season at Bayern.

Spurs, searching for more midfield depth and steel, landed him on loan in August. All things considered, Palhinha has done well in his first few months at Tottenham, leading the Premier League for tackles — 12 ahead of Tyrick Mitchell — but his long-standing risk factor at bigger clubs has come to the fore.

READ: Thomas Frank is small-timing the Spurs job and that could kill him

Thomas Frank knows Joao Palhinha ‘lacks quality’

Palhinha isn’t the same type of No.6 as Martin Zubimendi, Rodri, or Ryan Gravenberch. Spurs head coach Frank was aware of this when he signed him from Bayern, as highlighted by the statistics above.

He is industrious, physical, and strong in the tackle, traits Frank has always valued in his midfielders. That style works at Brentford, but maybe not at Spurs.

Palhinha is a good player, and it will be interesting to see if he can grow into a more possession-oriented role in Frank’s midfield. But Liverpool legend Carragher clearly isn’t convinced.

Carragher analysed Spurs’ defeat to Chelsea on Monday Night Football and highlighted Palhinha’s performance, mainly his lack of “ability” and “quality” to play forward passes and break lines to find players like Xavi Simons, Lucas Bergvall, and Mohammed Kudus.

“We spoke about courage; now we can talk about quality. Palhinha hasn’t got the quality,” Carragher said.

“For a player playing for Tottenham in central midfield, for me, that’s a pass you have to be able to make. He can’t make it.

“So even though I’m being critical of it, saying he hasn’t quite got the ability, he’s actually done okay for Tottenham in terms of his job, but they go back, listen to the boos.

“The only reason he does a clever turn on the ball is because of the boos. Again, Palhinha is on the ball, five touches because he hasn’t got the confidence or the ability.

“Danso now takes seven touches. They’re not good enough on the ball, and you now get a situation where Porro is getting the ball, getting closed down, and Xavi Simons is in that position there.

“What you’ve got is you’ve got a lack of courage and confidence from certain players, but you’ve also got a lack of ability of certain players.”

Asked by host David Jones if Spurs’ biggest problem is the lack of a midfield player capable of breaking lines, Carragher responded: “That’s the problem. And for me, for Thomas Frank, that is something he’s got to grow.

“A worry would be, one of his first signings is Palhinha. Now he is not capable, I don’t think, of doing this (line-breaking passes).

“There was a reason why players and teams in the Premier League didn’t buy him from Fulham, and there’s a reason why Bayern Munich bought him and didn’t play him, so that would be a worry.

“But for Thomas Frank, going forward, when you think of pragmatic managers in the past who’ve made that jump from a smaller club to a bigger club, that has always been the problem in terms of, can they coach the rotations, the build-up play, to break the lines?”

A lip reader has revealed that Tottenham star Djed Spence said to Spurs boss Thomas Frank as he walked off the pitch after losing to Chelsea.

The north London outfit were defeated 1-0 at home to the Blues with the visitors unlucky not to beat Tottenham by a bigger margin in the end.

Spurs looked toothless throughout as they struggled to create any good chances but Chelsea remain below them in the Premier League table on goal difference.

One of the major talking points in the aftermath of the result was Frank being snubbed by Tottenham stars Spence and Micky van de Ven at the final whistle.

As they were making their way off the pitch both players seemed to refuse a handshake and a request from Frank to thank fans, as the Tottenham boss gave them an angry stare as they headed towards the tunnel.

When asked about the incident in the post-match press conference, Frank said: “All the players are of course frustrated. They would like to do well, they would like to win, they would like to perform well, so I understand that.

READ: Simons gets Sancho’d in ‘ultimate humiliation’ as Spurs cannot ‘let it all work out’ for Eze rival

“I think it is about which is difficult to be consistent in good times and in bad times. That is why I went around to the fans as I did. It is more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”

And now the Daily Mail has been in touch with an expert lip reader, who has managed to work out what Spence said to Frank on his way off the pitch.

Lip reader Jeremy Freeman has claimed that Spence said to Frank as the Tottenham boss came towards him: “I ain’t doing it… go away.”

The Spurs right-back is also understood to have said “leave me…off” during the moments where he refused his manager’s advances for a handshake.

MORE SPURS COVERAGE ON F365…

👉 Thomas Frank is small-timing the Spurs job and that could kill him

👉 How can Spurs be Prem’s best away but relegation fodder at home?

👉 Poyet claims Tottenham were ‘confused’ versus Chelsea as he reacts to Spence, Van der Ven incident

Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards branded Spence and Van de Ven a “disgrace” for “disrespecting the manager” after the full-time whistle.

Richards said on The Rest Is Football podcast: “Djed Spence and [Micky] Van de Ven… I listened to a bit of an interview with Thomas Frank, and he sort of played it down.

“Well, you would — it’s important. He is a guy to play it down, yes, agreed.

“But if they’re disrespecting the manager like that, it’s an absolute disgrace. And if they did, I wouldn’t even play him in the next game.

“I really wouldn’t, because Thomas Frank’s not the sort of person who causes confrontations. So that would just be a lack of respect. But yeah, it’s strange coming from Van de Ven especially.”