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Benjamin Sesko is once again an injury doubt as Manchester United prepare to return to action against Tottenham.

Since his £74million arrival from RB Leipzig there has been plenty of promise but setbacks have never been too far away.

The Slovenia international enjoyed a strong second-half to his debut campaign in England last term, with growing hope he could be the club’s long-term solution up front.

Having scored a goal every 85 minutes under Michael Carrick, his 2025-26 campaign came to a premature end in May after a heavy landing down Old Trafford’s famous slope around the edge of the pitch against Liverpool, aggravating a shin injury in the process. Sesko had initially suffered the injury in early spring, carrying the problem as United chased down third place.

Sesko did not play a single minute of pre-season season action over the summer months as he continued to recover from the issue. It also delayed his start to the new season. While he was handing starting roles in the Champions League and Carabao Cup against Sabah and Brighton respectively, he was named on the bench in United’s opening four Premier League games, left out completely for the trip Fulham just before the international break kicked in.

It later emerged he had suffered a recurrence of the same shin issue, withdrawing from the Slovenia squad for the international break. The striker returned to Carrington to undergo tests but there has been no word from the club on his condition since with the return of club football now upon us.

Will Sesko face a similar spell out after summer nightmare?

Sesko’s injury is one that is difficult to judge without intimate knowledge of what’s going inside the United medical room. But this latest setback would suggest he would have perhaps benefited with more recovery time – even if his side have started the season in desperate need of a formidable presence up front.

Specific details on Sesko’s injury over the last six months have been scarce. ‘We’ll have to see what that brings,’ was Carrick’s assessment of the most recent setback but there will inevitably be frustration over the situation after months of hard work.

Sesko has not started a Premier League game since 3 May with his rehabilitation stretching across the summer months and into September. United staff have already seen the patient approach fall short. There are different options going forward to be considered but there is the possibility of another extended layoff on the cards.

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‘The risk is always there with recurrence. With injuries like this, you are playing a game of whack-a-mole,’ Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro.

‘They can be very challenging. The first thing you try isn’t always going to be the thing that works. They will be assessing what they did the first time around and now looking at different options. I would be confident they won’t just be doing the same thing because that hasn’t fixed it. They will want to move on.

‘Caution is the right word here. Given this has flared up again they will be inclined to be more cautious, not less. In terms of timelines, Unless he responds incredibly quickly and very differently than last time around, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a similar time frame and similar time lost as we saw last time.’

What are United’s options?

United will have had three weeks off when they return to action against Spurs on Saturday evening – already a must-win game for Carrick whose side have taken just five points from five games. The extended international break will have helped to start hacking away at Sesko’s recovery period but the club may still be yet to learn how long this latest process will take.

Extensive testing may have uncovered something new, which would have left United to decide which action to take.

‘One option is to continue the conservative management. That is the route they have been going down so far,’ Smith continued. ‘Separately, they may also look at some very specific treatments that are aimed at bone or soft tissue healing.

‘If it keeps resurfacing and imaging points to something more structural like a stress fracture that isn’t healing, more invasive options become part of the conversation.

‘Sometimes surgery can be considered. Looking at something like this initially, all you are doing is X-ray which gives you some picture of the bone but you are not going to get everything. So they may be looking at doing MRI or CT (scan) on the bone as well to see if they can see any further damage or trauma.

‘Sometimes you get microfractures that aren’t healing. They can go in and perform micro fracture treatment around it. They may get in there and put small breaks into the bone to create blood flow and try kickstart the healing process. But that’s a very invasive option and you are left dealing with a broken bone and all the time requirements from that to handle.

‘If it keeps recurring beyond this than a more definitive surgical option becomes a bigger part of the conversation. But that is generally a last resort in this scenario when the conservative approaches have had a proper chance and not been successful.’

United will also consider whether the issue is being caused by Sesko’s own biomechanics. The striker is one of the fastest players at the club and possesses an extraordinary leap but those too could be closely looked at to determine the real issue.

‘It could be something more mechanical, something to do with his own biomechanics in how he is running. They could indeed be performing really detailed biomechanical analysis on him now to see if there is something going on that’s causing this,’ Smith added.

Since taking the reins, Carrick has been reluctant to put specific timelines on any of his injured players and that is unlikely to change. United will be more careful than ever if Sesko is indeed facing another spell out of the team.

The short-term picture could potentially be another frustrating one. But reassuringly, the shin problems that have troubled him this year are unlikely to be something he has to contend with in the long-term.

‘The priority right now is to get an unbelievably precise diagnosis to ensure the club is not managing a recurring issue without knowing what is driving it,’ Smith said.

‘From there, it is about building a return which is not set by a date on the calendar. Realistically, when he is back playing he will likely need some individual management but right now, I wouldn’t be concerned with this being something that could plague him for the rest of his career.’

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Harry Redknapp says he hopes Manchester City are punished in ‘the years to come’ as it would be ‘madness’ to go back and begin ‘messing with results’ from previous seasons.

The footballing world was rocked to its core on Friday as it emerged that City had been found guilty on 114 of the 115 Premier League financial regulations they were accused of breaching.

The earth-shattering verdict comes on the back of a comprehensive four-year investigation into the club’s financial practices carried out between 2009 and 2018.

Though a possible timeline for City’s punishment remains uncertain, the eight-time English champions are expected to launch an appeal in due course – and there are fears the process could drag on for some time.

A hefty points deduction is said to be the ‘most likely’ punishment for City as it stands, but talk of forced relegation and heavy fines will continue until Enzo Maresca’s side officially learn their fate.

The potential knock-on effects of City’s misconduct bring countless other clubs into the picture, one of them being Tottenham, who Redknapp of course managed when the two teams battled it out for Champions League qualification spots in the early 2010s.

But while his side missed out on Europe’s premier competition by once place in successive seasons in 2010/11 and 2011/12, the former Spurs manager feels it would be insanity to start rewriting history.

‘Manchester City’s guilty verdict handed down on almost all of their Premier League charges is a staggering moment for football,’ Redknapp wrote in a column for The Sun.

‘It is a huge task to try and wrap your head around just how far this could reach through the sport — all the people who could be impacted.

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‘There are so many who will feel they have a claim to have some wrongs righted should City fail in their appeal and I am one of them.

‘During the period City’s charges cover, I was in charge of Spurs and locking horns with them for the Champions League spots over a long run.

‘In back-to-back seasons, 2010/11 and 2011/12, we finished one place off qualification.

‘The second time around, when City won the title with that Sergio Aguero goal on the final day, we finished fourth but still missed out as Chelsea won the Champions League to take our spot.

‘In May 2011, a 1-0 loss to Roberto Mancini’s side saw them qualify for Europe’s biggest competition for the first time and ended our dream of getting in there ourselves.’

Redknapp added: ‘Who knows what would have happened if those at the Etihad had been playing by the rules like everyone else?

‘No one can say for sure but Tottenham fans will not be alone in feeling that they were, in some way, cheated across those seasons.’

Though teams at both ends of the English top flight may have grievances and cases to make, Redknapp has ‘no interest’ in the Premier League returning to previous seasons to take points or titles away from City.

He continued: ‘Champions League football over those two years could have changed so much for Spurs but I have no interest in the Premier League going back and deducting points from those seasons or deducting titles from City.

‘This whole process has been one almighty, drawn-out mess, but we are still a long way off from it being finished.

‘Just imagine the can of worms we would be opening if the suits were to start going back and altering league tables which have long been finalised.

‘Where do you start and where do you draw the line? Not only are the clubs at the top impacted by titles, Champions League places and huge revenue missed out on – but those at the bottom will all have claims, too.’

If the Premier League were to begin ‘messing’ with previous outcomes, Redknapp believes would do ‘incredible damage’ to the division’s perception and standing across the globe.

‘Opening up all those previous seasons would do incredible damage to a league which is the envy of the world,’ the 79-year-old went on.

‘City obviously need to be punished, to be made an example of, but it makes much more sense for everyone involved if those penalties cover the years to come.

‘They should be hit hard when all is said and done but, as wronged as we all might feel by what happened, it would be madness to go back and start messing with results from the past.’

In the wake of Friday’s stunning news, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak encouraged supporters to remain confident that the club would be able to prove its innocence.

‘I have been part of this club for 18 years,’ the statement began.

‘I have had the privilege to stand with you in the Etihad, at Wembley, and in Istanbul. This club matters to me, and you have shown and told me – time and time again – how much Manchester City matters to you. This is why I am writing to you today.

‘Following Friday’s media reporting, many of you will have spent your evening answering questions and responding to messages from friends, family and colleagues. So have I. Here’s what I said to my family: The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began.

‘There are so many things that I would like to be able to share with you to help you understand why we feel so confident in our position. But the strict confidentiality of the legal process and our determination to respect it means I cannot do that at the moment. Even this letter underwent several legal checks to make sure it complies.

‘I ask you to please carefully read the statement below, which we gave on Friday, and the statement we issued in February 2023 (also below). Every word matters and holds true.

‘While some people have been quick to reach their own conclusions, and there is so much noise swirling around us, nothing has changed. We have faced challenges together before and have prevailed. There remain many who want to undermine the momentum of our club. We will not give them that opportunity.

‘We have some exciting moments to look forward to after this international break. We travel to Anfield in a fortnight, and then host Paris St Germain in the Champions League back at Etihad Stadium – moments that give us an opportunity to celebrate the strength of the Manchester City family.

‘Thank you, as always, for your constant support.’

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Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly has given a surprise answer when asked who is the toughest opponent he has faced in the Premier League.

Still just 19 years old, Lewis-Skelly has made 81 first team appearances for the Gunners across all competitions and won six England caps.

He broke into the team in the 2024/25 season and starred at left-back, but has been used more recently in midfield.

The teenager has a Premier League winner’s medal to his name and started in the Champions League final last season. He has seen an awful lot already in his short career, ahead of turning 20 before the end of this month.

Lewis-Skelly certainly has plenty of options when it comes to his toughest Premier League opponent, be it a right-winger or central midfielder.

It is the latter that has stood out to him, naming a Tottenham player as his most testing opponent, but when he played for his previous club.

‘Matheus Fernandes, when he was at West Ham,’ Lewis-Skelly told Men In Blazers of his toughest Premier League foe.

Fernandes has had an interesting career so far, arriving in England in 2024 when Southampton signed him from Sporting in his home country of Portugal.

He was relegated with the Saints after one season and moved to West Ham, where he also suffered relegation after just one year.

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Spurs then paid £85 million for his services over the summer, but he has made a slow start to life in north London.

The midfielder started the meeting with Aston Villa on Saturday but was replaced at half-time, with manager Roberto De Zerbi saying he did not like what he saw from the Portugal international.

‘I have a big confidence in Mateus, but I didn’t like the performance of Mateus today. Otherwise I couldn’t change,’ said De Zerbi on replacing Fernandes with Mohammed Kudus during the 3-2 defeat.

‘He knows. But it’s normal. It’s not an attack on Mateus, I love Mateus, it’s not a problem. But I think for Mateus, we need more from Mateus. Because he can, even in that position.’

Lewis-Skelly also commented on another midfielder, his new teammate Bruno Guimaraes, who is providing him more competition at Arsenal.

‘Bruno brings energy, experience, intensity,’ said the England international of the Brazil star. ‘When I heard he was joining I was super happy because it’s someone to learn from and pick the brain of.

‘He’s another winner, he’s someone who plays in a similar position to you, so you can always learn from him. Being a sponge to Bruno is going to be really impactful.’

Confirming his preference in position, the teenager added: ‘I’m a midfielder. But at the end of the day it’s all down to the team needs. No player, no individual is bigger than the team goal. Whatever has to help the team, I’ll do it.’

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Steven Gerrard believes Spurs will finish outside of the Premier League top four after their failure to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side are still searching for their first win in the Premier League this season after they were beaten 3-2 at home to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Spurs spent £302 million in the summer window with Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Savio and Jan Paul van Hecke among the club’s big-money signings.

But Gerrard feels that Spurs missed out on signing a leading goal scorer to provide competition for Dominic Solanke and says fans should now be ‘concerned’ for their season.

‘They’ve fixed some areas,’ Gerrard told TNT Sports after Spurs’ defeat to Villa.

‘I would say the midfield, the engine room stronger with Tonali and Fernandez, Bentancur. That looks a strong midfield for me. And you’ve got Connor Gallagher who probably could have started today. I thought his performance at Anfield, he maybe should have started today. So, I don’t think midfield’s a big problem.

‘They’re a little bit weak and a little bit flaky at the back. They’re conceding too many goals.

‘Just a straight long ball down the field. If your two centre-backs can’t deal with that, you’re going to have problems. So that needs to be fixed.

‘And I think Spurs have improved in certain areas. But going forward, which is the big problem, the lack of goals, they haven’t got a poacher. They haven’t got a goal scorer.

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‘And I say that respectfully because they’ve got good players in the front line. They’ve got exciting players in the front line. But who’s going to get you 20 goals?

‘So the recruitment and who’ve decided to go for these certain type of players, they’ve got to look at each other and go, ‘we haven’t gone out and got a 20-goal-a-season man’.

‘And if you haven’t got that and you’re conceding goals at the back, it might be time to get concerned if you’re a Spurs fan again because there’s two things. You either keep clean sheets, which keeps you in a safe place in this table, or you have phenomenal goal scorers in your team, like Harry Kane’s done for many years here. They score the amount of goals that keep you up the top. If you’re shaky at the back and you haven’t got that poacher… watch out.’

Asked if he agrees with De Zerbi’s claim that Spurs can finish in the top four this season, Gerrard replied: ‘Not on the evidence of today.

‘That’s disagree and I respect him a lot. I think he’s a elite top coach, but I think he’s playing games there to maybe put a bit of pressure on to Spurs.’

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Roberto De Zerbi has criticised the performance of Mateus Fernandes after Tottenham slumped to a 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa.

Spurs are still without a win this season with Villa securing their first of the campaign. Unai Emery’s side led 3-0 in north London with Tottenham scoring their first goals of the season through Conor Gallagher and Jan van Hecke but the late flurry came too little too late.

Fernandes, an £85million signing from West Ham United during the summer transfer window, started the game on Saturday afternoon but was replaced at half-time by Mohammed Kudus.

Spurs trailed by a single goal scored in added time at the end of the half when Fernandes was replaced, conceding another two with him off the pitch.

Speaking after the game, De Zerbi defended his decision, insisting he ‘needed more’ from the former Hammers star.

Asked if Spurs lost something in midfield with Fernandes off the pitch, De Zerbi said: ‘It’s not just that problem. In the second-half we lost balance because we were losing and we forced the pass, we forced the situation and they were winning the ball.

‘They played more on counter attack. Mateus is different to Kudus, I have big confidence in Mateus but I did not like the performance of Mateus today.

‘It’s not an attack of him, I love him, but for Mateus, we need more from Mateus in that position.’

Mathys Tel was not in the Tottenham squad today a week after De Zerbi was seen berating his forward moments after the final whistle against Everton last weekend.

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‘Technical decision,’ De Zerbi said, explaining the Frenchman’s omission.

‘He was in the stands, because I think during the game, Maddison and Kudus, they had more chances to change the game, and then two centre-backs, important, also the two full-backs, have a look for Pedro Porro, with Archie Grey, and the two central midfielders.

‘But I explained why to Mathys yesterday. It was no problem. He was very nice and he understood the reason, but nothing more, and also he played more than the others.’

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Roberto De Zerbi felt he had to ‘coach’ Mathys Tel how to play as a striker after he was spotted berating his player after Tottenham’s draw with Everton.

A miserable start to the campaign for Spurs continued on Saturday evening with the Toffees holding them to a goalless draw in north London.

Tottenham are still to win a game this season and failure to score tonight extends their goal drought to over six hours.

It is the first time the club have failed to score in their opening four league matches of the season.

Dominic Solanke was ineffective up top with Tel brought onto replace him after the hour mark.

The change did little to inspire De Zerbi’s attack who mustered just two shots on goal.

Immediately after the final whistle, the Italian walked onto the pitch straight over to Tel, berating the former Bayern Munich starlet in a tense exchange. Tel stood with his arms on his hips.

Explaining the incident, De Zerbi said in his post-match press conference: ‘I was coaching him on the pitch. The body shape, he is a striker, the striker will play with his shoulder on the goal (side).

‘If we are playing with Maddison, Kudus and Savinho, he has to play as a striker. And the striker has to look at the goal, no? Or on the cross of Robertson.

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‘Because he started as a striker. Now he is playing as a winger but he started his career as a striker. But I love Mathys as a player, as a guy. There is not a problem.’

Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp meanwhile was scathing in his criticism of a ‘diabolical’ performance from the hosts.

‘After spending £300m, I didn’t think there would be a problem scoring goals,’ Redknapp said on Sky Sports.

‘I thought that they might struggle to win games, a few teething problems, but I thought with the players they’ve got in midfield…surely they have goals in this team.

‘To not score in the Premier League in six hours of football is absolutely diabolical, whatever way you look at it.

‘They defended better today, the centre-backs were better than what they had been. But there was just not enough. How can you not score in six hours of football?

‘They have not got the right balance in the team. ‘There are so many problems to solve in a game just to score a goal.’

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Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie have missed Tottenham’s Premier League clash against Everton.

Porro and Udogie both started in Spurs’ goalless draw away to Nottingham Forest last weekend.

But for Everton’s visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, both players have failed to make Spurs’ matchday squad with Archie Gray and Andy Robertson starting in defence.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, De Zerbi insisted that Spurs would take a cautious approach over Porro’s availability.

‘Pedro Porro felt a small muscular problem, we have to see tomorrow if he’s available or not but in this moment I don’t want to take any risks. The same [with] Udogie,’ De Zerbi said.

‘Pedro Porro and Udogie are similar players because one, Pedro played a World Cup, a long World Cup and we already knew after the World Cup it could be a difficult management for him.

‘For Udogie, last season [he] suffered many injuries, he played 60 minutes in Nottingham and we have to manage also Destiny in the best way we can.’

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Mauricio Pochettino believes Chelsea should be stripped of the 2016-17 Premier League title and it should be handed to Tottenham Hotspur.

The Argentine, who went on to manage Chelsea, was in charge of Spurs at the time as they finished second, seven points adrift of Antonio Conte’s Blues.

Conte’s side finished with 93 points, led by Diego Costa up front and a fabulous season from Eden Hazard behind him, while the likes of N’Golo Kante, Gary Cahill and David Luiz all made the PFA Team of the Year.

However, it has since been tainted as Chelsea’s owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, self-reported 74 breaches of FA rules related to secret payments to unregistered agents after they purchased the club from Roman Abramovich in 2022.

Chelsea admitted to making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and intermediaries between 2011 and 2018.

Deals for the likes of Hazard, Luiz, Willian and Nemanja Matic were all found to have broken rules.

After an initial punishment included a points deduction, on appeal Chelsea were fined £10 million and given a suspended two-window transfer ban by the Football Association over the summer.

Pochettino feels that the punishment should extend beyond this and Chelsea should not be considered champions in 2017 as they broke rules to win the Premier League. Instead, his Tottenham team should be awarded the title.

‘We should win one Premier League, we should have been awarded it,’ said Pochettino. ‘If that was true, then we deserve to be champions that year, for sure. They were punished, they admitted it? So that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second.

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‘We can say that they scored goals, they won games. OK. But it’s completely fair to say that we didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card. Maybe with the same rules, we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals.’

While the Blues had plenty of world class players at the time, it was suggested to Pochettino that Hazard made a particular difference.

‘Maybe yes,’ said the USA manager. ‘I have no doubt and I’m not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me. But if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same: “We don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules.”

‘It’s impossible if only some clubs play with offside and another plays with no offside. Or one plays with VAR and another plays with no VAR. For everyone it needs to be the same rules. And then you have the capacity to create the best team.

‘I don’t say that Chelsea didn’t play well, that Conte was not great. I don’t say that. I don’t want the message to be twisted. But if you broke the rules then ciao – you need to give it to another team.

‘I don’t know why that didn’t happen. What is being promoted and incentivised is to break the rules. If you don’t punish in the way that you need to punish, I say: “Yeah … I lost my job [at Spurs] because we didn’t win a title.”’

Pochettino was in charge of Spurs from May 2014-November 2019 and went on to manage Chelsea for one season in 2023/24.

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Arsenal were reportedly ready to turn to Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven as transfer targets at centre-back had they missed out on a deal for Ezri Konsa.

The Gunners set out their stall right from the start of the summer and finished with five first-team additions, with Bruno Guimaraes, Piero Hincapie, Christos Tzolis, Illan Meslier and Konsa all signing on the dotted line in north London.

After bringing their 22-year wait for a Premier League title to an end, Arsenal’s hierarchy made it clear they were prepared to back Mikel Arteta with ample funds in the transfer market to give the Spaniard the best possible chance for the season ahead.

There was, though, a sense of disappointment on deadline day as the English champions failed in their pursuit of a top-class attacker to help fill the void left by the departures of both Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli.

According to the BBC’s Sami Mokbel, Arsenal bosses had drawn up a shortlist containing more than 20 players at the start of the transfer window, including high-profile attacking talents Morgan Rogers, Vinicius Junior and Joao Pedro.

In defence, meanwhile, the north Londoners were said to have been monitoring developments surrounding Sassuolo’s Tarik Muharemovic, Como’s Jacobo Ramon and England international Konsa – who would join from Aston Villa in a £51million deal.

It’s claimed Tottenham centre-backs Romero and Van de Ven had also been identified amongst Arsenal’s top targets in the event that they had failed in their efforts to tie down Konsa.

However, the report underlines that Spurs would not have entertained an approach from from their bitter rivals, with Sol Campbell the last player to make the controversial move back in 2001.

Romero – Tottenham’s captain last season – would go on to complete a switch from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to La Liga giants Atletico Madrid in a deal worth in the region of £34million.

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Van de Ven in the end decided to stay put amid strong interest from across Europe, with the Netherlands international putting pen to paper on a five-year contract last month.

Roberto De Zerbi would go on to name Van de Ven as the club’s new captain, with the Dutchman making his return from injury in the side’s goalless draw at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Despite Arsenal’s failure to bring in a left-sided attacker on deadline day, Arteta insisted he was satisfied with the club’s business in the transfer market.

‘Yeah, 100 per cent,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters on Friday.

‘The outcome after can be different to what you expect but the intention is certainly there which is in my opinion what I value the most.

‘It doesn’t depend on you only. I think Andrea [Berta, sporting director] is better, or Josh [Kronke, co-chariman], to talk about that [how hard those deals are to do], because I am not in those negotiations.

‘They know much better than me. These are questions that are related to the market and all aspects that I think it is better they speak about it.’

When it was put to Arteta that the prices of players had skyrocketed, the Spaniard replied: ‘It looks like it.

‘I’m sure that when this happens, it is because there has been an analysis behind it that this is going to be sustainable and other resources will appear, or the valuation of every player will be then much higher and it will be done in a sustainable way.

‘But again, that is something for the Premier League and the owners to look at and evaluate.’

The reigning champions ensured they got their title defence off to the perfect start with victories over newly promoted Coventry City and Aston Villa.

Arteta’s men will hope to pick up where they left off when they return to action for what promises to be a compelling London derby with a resurgent Chelsea this afternoon.

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Roberto De Zerbi took aim at his attacking players after Tottenham’s goalless draw with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Spurs earned their first point of the new Premier League season following back-to-back defeats to Brentford and Newcastle United.

But De Zerbi was unhappy with the quality his side showed in attacking areas and highlighted an opportunity wasted by Spurs’ new summer signing Omar Marmoush.

De Zerbi also criticised Mathys Tel, who was replaced by Mykhailo Mudryk in the second half, by claiming that the 21-year-old French winger ‘takes too many wrong decisions’.

Speaking after Spurs’ draw with Forest, De Zerbi said: ‘I think we played well but in the last third we have to improve.

‘We have to take the better decisions. We have to keep more calm when we are very close to doing something important in the last third.

‘I remember the chance when Marmoush shot at goal, the way we had Robertson overlapping. If we take the right decision and we play with Robertson then on the second post there is Kudus to score like this.

‘Or how many crosses went over the second post? From Mathys Tel, two times, Savio, one time. Savio I think it’s the last decision. The ball from Pedro Porro on Mateus Fernandes when he played with Kudus and then for the header of Solanke, Mateus was completely alone to go forward to score.

‘Anyway, I’m very happy for the spirit of the team, for the organisation, with and without the ball. We didn’t suffer nothing. Their style of play is very clear, long ball and second ball. But even this second ball, we won many, many duels. They have good players and taking points in this stadium is not so easy.

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‘We are not happy because we didn’t win, but I think this is the right spirit and the right way to move on in this moment. Because we started just last Thursday to work together and to create, to build the team, to build the organisation. It’s not enough the paper, the transfer market.’

When asked about Mudryk’s debut, De Zerbi then took aim at Tel’s decision making.

‘He’s not ready yet,’ De Zerbi said of Mudryk.

‘He’s working to reach the best physical condition. He needs time, he needs work. In that position, we have Mathys Tel, big potential. But also Mathys takes too many wrong decisions, and Mudryk. So, two big players, two big potential players.

‘But anyway, if we want to score, I think Marmoush has 15 goals. Solanke, the chance header for Solanke, I consider a chance to score. It’s not a shot on goal. But how many shots did Nottingham have today? I think, anyway, it was a good game.’

Asked how he can improve on Spurs’ mistakes in attack, De Zerbi replied: ‘Meeting, watching, analysing together with the players. Also, I think, winning the games, because, you know, the confidence, the enthusiasm, it can be crucial to find the right decision.

‘But I love these players. I spoke now about Marmoush. But Marmoush, we have to analyse if he has, or not, 15, 12 goals. I think, yes, because he has all the qualities, enough to score that number of goals. He has to improve, of course.

‘Like Domi Solanke, I think if Domi is fit, is in the best physical condition, the chance he had was completely different.’

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