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Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur: game time, open thread, and how to watch friendly online

A preseason North London Derby? In THIS economy?

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Tottenham Hotspur are in Hong Kong for the next match of their preseason campaign: a (frankly quite odd) “friendly” against rivals Arsenal.

Here’s your open thread to jump in and chat.

COYS!

Lineups

How to Watch

Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur (friendly)

Kai Tak Sports Park, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Time: 7:30 a.m. ET, 12:30 p.m. UK:

Not televised in USA or UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: SPURSPLAY, Amazon Prime US, CBS Sports Golazo, Paramount+

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

Absolutely no links to illegal streams. They’re bad and they get us in trouble. Violators will be warned or banned.

We have rules against “relentless negativity.” Nobody likes a Negative Nancy. Don’t knee-jerk and post outlandish or hurtful things just because you’re frustrated.

Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

Treat other people in the match thread the way you would want someone else to treat your grandmother. Be nice. This is a community of fans, not an un-moderated message board.

NO SPIDERS!

Finally, while we don’t have a rule against profanity, please try and keep the naughty words in check. Also, language that is sexist, racist, transphobic, or homophobic in nature will be swiftly deleted and you will be immediately banned. This is an open, supportive community.

Have fun, and COYS!

Can you believe it? The EFL Championship kicks off in just over a week. And we at hoddle headquarters are seriously excited this year because Tottenham Hotspur Boy Ryan Mason will be on the touchline for West Brom.

The notable news on the managerial front from this month, though, was Marti Cifuentes making the switch from QPR to Leicester City. It’s certainly a loss for the London club, but I think they should still be right about midtable.

Other than that, attention turns towards the transfers. Birmingham made a few big signings with Demarai Gray (Al-Ettifaq), Kyogo Furuhashi (Rennes) and Kanya Fujimoto (Gil Vicente) as the Blues return to the second tier. From what I’m seeing out there, a fair amount of people are backing them to finish right around the playoffs or, at the worst, top 12.

WBA brought in some reinforcements for Mason including forward Aune Heggebo (Brann) for a 4.75m fee, Nat Phillips from Liverpool and centreback George Campbell from Montreal.

Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday’and Hull City’s futures are both in peril and both facing transfer embargoes.

One big loss for Wednesday was forward Josh Windass, who left the club for Wrexham on a free transfer. And manager Dani Rohl has also left the club by mutual consent.

Hoddle Headquarters are still going to be monitoring the transfer wires in the EFL Championship before releasing our predictions this year, so stay tuned.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Magic of Meghan, by Dry Cleaning

And nwo for your links:

Welcome to another edition of Fitzie’s Fitzie’s Film and TV reviews, where your hoddler-in-chief reviews some of the things he’s seen on the television and in the cinema lately.

I wish I could say I’ve watched films in the cinema, but unfortunately the Landmark E Street Cinema has been closed for months now. This means that my favourite way of escaping the heat - by escaping into the downtown DC cinema - is no longer an option this summer. Brutal.

I only have a few films to review week, and it’s mostly golf related. I didn’t plan for it to be this way, it just happened. But you can thank The Phoenician Scheme for breaking up some of the sportiness.

Stick: In a previous edition of this series, I slated Stick as an obvious attempt by Apple to recreate the highs of Ted Lasso. But instead of Jason Sudeikis it’s Owen Wilson, and instead of football it’s golf.

The first six or seven episodes were pretty rough, I’m not going to lie. And I don’t know what I felt compelled to sit through them all. Everything about it was insufferable.

It slightly made up for it with a genuinely captivating final three episodes in which teen golf sensation Santiago Wheelers tees it up (lol) with the pros. I guess Apple liked it enough to renew it for a second season, but does that mean I have to watch it again?

Happy Gilmore 2: The highly anticipated follow-up to Adam Sandler’s 1996 film. I can’t say too much of the setup as that is spoils galore, but what I can say is that it is a pretty solid film.

There were a few challenges creating a sequel set so far after the original, one of which is to bring up newer audiences back up to speed. I think the film did that with just enough callbacks and flashbacks without it seeming forced.

It also features tonnes of golf cameos but the ones that stole it for me were Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka. No one took themselves seriously, which definitely made up for their lack of acting chops.

However, I found the second half of the film to be less compelling than the first. I wasn’t so interested in this good guy/bad guy dynamic as I was in the first film. It was almost 1996 meets 2096, and for that the pacing felt a little off.

The Phoenician Scheme: I so wanted to enjoy this one more. There are some beautifully shot scenes, including Benicio del Toro in the bathtub during the opening credits. Michael Cera is also splendid in his role.

I think this film would’ve worked a lot more if it focused on del Toro and Mia Threapleton’s characters, as it is rewarding to see how they evolve throughout the movie. But there’s so much gunk around it - that’s totally on all the A-listers associated with this.

Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Willem Dafoe all make appearances in this film and they don’t even comprise the entire ensemble. It’s just too many big names and not enough substance.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Silver Lining, by Rilo Kiley

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “New Tottenham injury scares in training and who was missing from session ahead of Arsenal game”

The Telegraph: “Bryan Mbeumo: Manchester United project convinced me to reject Newcastle and Spurs”

We’ve written two articles about Real Madrid attacker Rodrygo Goes and the numerous links in the Spanish media to Tottenham Hotspur. The first one was a Bat Country takedown from Sean, the second was more of a Kombucha Girl follow-up from me.

Well, as expected we can put this one to bed. A series of tweets from various outlets came out yesterday evening to rubbish any connection between Rodrygo and Spurs, and The Athletic is also confirming it — not only is Rodrygo not into Tottenham, Spurs aren’t even really looking to reinforce at that position.

Then there is the left side of defence, which has needed reinforcements for some time. Kyle Walker-Peters has signed for West Ham United. There have been reports in Spain linking Spurs with Real Madrid’s Rodrygo, but that is not a position that Tottenham are focusing on.

— Jack Pitt-Brooke, The Athletic

I mean, of course they aren’t. I wish I didn’t have to spill so much digital ink over this particular rumor, especially since it seemed so ridiculous from the get-go. But Tottenham did sign Rafael van der Vaart that one time and ever since there’s that little part in the back of your brain that goes “ok, but WHAT IF?”

But yeah. Not happening. Time to put it to bed. This was almost certainly Rodrygo’s agent yapping to whoever would listen to create a market for his client. And as we’ve seen, no other English club is as big a transfer stalking horse as Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Tottenham Hotspur are currently in Hong Kong and preparing for the first stop of their Asia tour — a preseason friendly against arch-rivals Arsenal. Shortly after landing, Spurs manager Thomas Frank gave an interview to the assembled media about the upcoming match, transfer plans, Morgan Gibbs-White, and squad injuries.

Of all of it, the injuries were the most interesting. Tottenham left a number of players at home in this one, including Dejan Kulusevski, Radu Dragusin, and Manor Solomon. Two late additions to the scratch list were Destiny Udogie, who pulled out of Spurs’ friendly last week after he “felt something” in warm-up, and new signing Kota Takai, who either arrived at preseason with an injury or did something in training.

Frank gave a short update on both Destiny and Takai, and welp, the news could be better.

“Kota’s got plantar fascia unfortunately. I don’t know exactly the scale of it, weeks. Destiny has got a knee injury that we are assessing at the moment that just kept him out of the pre-season tour. When we know more, we will update more.”

Ugh. As anyone who has ever been a runner and suffered from it can tell you, plantar fasciitis is a nasty injury that can take a long time to heal. Frank’s assessment of “weeks” is both unfortunate and probably pretty likely. That’s not a great sign for Takai and again probably leaves Spurs short handed on the defensive end to begin the Premier League season.

As for Destiny, we don’t know the extent of the knee injury he’s suffering from, but hopefully it isn’t too bad. It’s bad enough that he was left back in London while the rest of the squad jets off to Hong Kong and Seoul, but maybe that ends up being a good thing? It will allow Djed Spence, Ben Davies and Pedro Porro to get extra minutes, and it also probably means first team preseason minutes at left back for Jamie Donley, who could use them.

Elsewhere, Frank talked a little about Mikey Moore, who is expected to finalize a season-long loan to Glasgow Rangers in the Scottish Premier League very soon. Frank suggested that a loan to a club at the top of its league like Rangers and the first team opportunities it provides will be very good for Moore’s development.

“It is very important. Mikey is a big talent. I’m really excited about his future here at Tottenham. I think for all players but especially younger players they need consistent first-team football into their bodies. I think if we can find the right option we will do that.“

Tottenham’s preseason friendly against Arsenal kicks off this Thursday at 7:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. The match is not broadcast or streamed in the UK apart from on SpursPLAY, Tottenham’s in-house streaming service, but will be streamed on both Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo in the United States.

A few days ago you might have seen rumors floating around the Spurs-o-sphere linking Tottenham Hotspur with an inexplicable loan to Lille in Ligue 1. The idea was pretty straight forward — Lille just sold their starting keeper, Lucas Chevalier, to PSG in a deal worth €40m, and hence are on the lookout for a new starter between the sticks. Kinsky was mooted as an option — he’s a talented young keeper who, the thought was, is stuck behind Guglielmo Vicario at Tottenham. So let’s get him in on loan!

This is stupid for a couple of reasons. First, Tottenham are in four competitions including the Champions League, and injuries happen so there’s going to be plenty of competitions and opportunities not only for Kinsky to play, but also to push Vicario for a starting job. Secondly, while letting Kinsky go out on loan would mean first team, every week football for the 23-year old Czech keeper, it would mean if something happened to Vicario, Tottenham’s keeper options would be Brandon Austin and U21 keeper Luca Gunter.

Not great! Thankfully, according to a source from Kinsky’s home country, it’s all bogus.

Stephan Kubin, writing for Infotbal.cz, say that there are no negotiations between Tottenham and any other club happening at the moment, which makes sense considering Kinsky is currently in Hong Kong with the rest of Spurs preparing for a ridiculous preseason friendly against Arsenal.

What about after the tour? “Nothing can be ruled out,” says the article, but they view it as incredibly unlikely, considering how much it would weaken Tottenham at the keeper position, and that it’s hard to imagine a scenario where they would allow Kinsky to leave the club on loan.

Look, it makes sense that the French media might grasp onto a fleeting rumor about a French club that just sold its starting keeper to the league giants might be interested in bringing in Spurs’ No. 2. That would make a lot of good sense for Lille. The problem is it doesn’t make a lick of sense for Tottenham, even if Kinsky wanted the move. Calling it right now — this doesn’t happen. And if I’m wrong about this, then I’m going to have some serious concerns about what kind of operation Johan Lange is running over there.

Another week has gone and we’re now without two incredible sporting events: the women’s Euros and the Tour de France.

Even though I don’t bicycle (because of a near-death experience as a child), I love watching the Tour de France. I can’t relate to the athleticism required to win, but nonetheless I tune in each morning when the race starts.

What is it? The hundred-plus cyclists, the rainbow of jerseys (not to be mistaken for the rainbow jersey), the thousands of fans that line the street, or is it gorgeous scenary from the mountains to the dramatic finish in Paris?

Either way, the tournament always brings out some incredible photos. Here are just three I liked from the final couple days:

Stage 20

I wish I could find the original source for this image, but I came up unlucky whilst scrolling through Jered Gruber’s instagram. He’s got some incredible pictues on there, but this one looks insane. I remember Stage 20 being particularly brutal.

Ivan Romeo

You might find it hard to believe by looking at this picture, but Spanish champion Ivan Romeo completed this stage (again Stage 20) and the tour itself.

Romeo was part of the lead group during a very wet Stage 20 from Nantuato to Pontarlier, and suffered a nasty crash while rounding a bend. It seemed his bicycle just lost traction and Romeo could be seen sliding on the pavement and colliding hard with the curb.

He looked pretty beat up and it wasn’t known at the time if he’d be able to continue. Thankfully he did, and the above picture is him after crossing the finish line.

The climb up Monmartre

Tour organisers altered the final day of the course this year. Instead of the traditional loops around Paris, this stage featured a new route.

Aside from the rain, it paid off in divdends. Wout Van Aert broke past Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar to win the stage and we were given an incredible view of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Trans-Europe Express, by Kraftwerk

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “If Spurs aren’t signing Morgan Gibbs-White, who are the closest alternatives?”

The Standard: “Tottenham XI vs Arsenal: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup and injury latest for pre-season friendly”

BBC: “Morecambe suspended from the National League”

Son Heung-Min may or may not be a Tottenham Hotspur player when Spurs kick off the Premier League season in August, and that hasn’t been decided yet. But now it sure seems like we know what one of the options is. Ben Jacobs and Tom Bogert are reporting that Los Angeles FC (LAFC) are “advancing talks” to bring Son from the Premier League to MLS this summer, though naturally any move would take place after Spurs’ preseason tour to Asia.

So this rumor is not new — we’ve known about LAFC’s interest in Sonny for a few weeks now. What is new is that the club is now in active negotiations. That not only says that LAFC have interest in Son (lots of clubs probably have interest in Sonny) but that Spurs are potentially open to whatever small transfer fee LAFC would be willing to spend for him.

That’s significant, and probably plays into Spurs’ willingness to let Sonny determine how he wants to end his own career. The above report states that Son would prefer an MLS move to one to Saudi Arabia, and that talks will take place between Son and Thomas Frank to go over his role in Spurs’ squad this coming season. There’s willingness to keep Sonny and let him depart on a free transfer when his contract expires, but Spurs wouldn’t stand in his way should he want to leave now for a new opportunity on a different continent.

The article states that LAFC are close to agreeing personal terms with Son as a Designated Player. Meanwhile, the unnamed Saudi Arabian club would offer as much as $40m for Son, should he decide he was willing to play football in the Middle East for a couple of years.

I don’t think we have enough information to know what Sonny wants to do or what he will do; that will likely emerge when the club gets back from South Korea. I do think if Spurs wanted to prioritize maximizing profit on Sonny’s transfer fee then there’s little chance they’d consider a move to MLS, which has a league-wide record transfer fee of $22m. LAFC has never spent more than $11.4m for a player before.

But as I’ve stated before, Sonny has done something no other Tottenham club captain has done in nearly five decades — delivered a European title. He is forever a club legend, deserves a statue outside of White Hart Lane, and has earned the right to make whatever decision he feels is the best for his career. We’ll probably know before too long what he wants to do.

OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one already — 24-year-old Real Madrid attacker Rodrygo Goes is linked with Tottenham Hotspur, who are reportedly in talks to ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I’m sorry I’m still not sure I can do this. A few days ago, Carty Free Editor Emeritus Sean Cahill returned from retirement to write up a Bat Country article about this very rumor, and there doesn’t yet seem to be much reason to dispute anything in there.

Or is there? There probably isn’t. BUT WHAT IF? For whatever reason, these rumors aren’t going away. The latest comes from Spanish journalist Ramon Alvarez de Mon, who reported on Twitter that Tottenham are “in talks” over Rodrygo, but are waiting to see whether Liverpool decide to make a move for him or signs Alexander Isak from Newcastle instead. There’s still every chance that Rodrygo decides to stay at Madrid, however.

So, a couple things about this. First, the reasons why this won’t happen are still very real — Rodrygo is a very good player and would undoubtedly improve Tottenham Hotspur’s first team, but he would cost a pretty penny to get out of Madrid. Then there’s the question of his wages — Rodrygo makes about £200k/wk net, not gross, meaning after taxes. Most wages in English football are reported as gross. So his wages are stupid high, some saying as high as £400k/week. That would smash completely through Spurs’ wage structure and would likely have long tail implications going forward.

There’s also the question of how badly Rodrygo wants to leave. It does sound like Madrid are willing to let him go. He’s a good enough player that he’d be a target for clubs much richer and better than Tottenham Hotspur, but almost all of those teams have already done or are doing their business. That could put Spurs in the position of “next best club available” for Rodrygo, again if he’s willing to leave Madrid to make that kind of step down. It would take a number of highly specific dominoes to fall in just the right order for it to happen, but part of the transfer window is clubs getting themselves in the right position to take advantage of situations that might occur.

My gut feeling is that this rumor is still fake as hell, or just Rodrygo’s agent working feverishly to try and create a market for his client. There’s also the possibility that whatever “in talks” means isn’t as sexy as we want it to be, i.e. Spurs have made some kind of preliminary contact for Rodrygo that probably won’t go anywhere.

There’s also a possibility that this could turn into something like a deadline day loan with a purchase option, which would be fun but I’d guess Spurs would still be on the hook for nearly all, if not all, of Rodrygo’s wages. And that’s really the sticking point here: I just don’t see Spurs doing that, and I’d be a little upset if we bet the farm on this happening rather than continuing to strengthen other areas.

So, I’m still deeply, deeply skeptical that this is something that is a) a thing and b) a thing that will happen. What’s more interesting is that these rumors aren’t going away despite people like us laughing at the possibility.

But yo, it’d be pretty rad if it did.

Yesterday, there were some curious absences when Tottenham Hotspur announced their travelling squad for their Asia preseason tour. One of those absentees was 17-year-old winger Mikey Moore, who is reportedly looking to secure a loan for more playing time.

Enter everybody’s “favorite” Telegraph journalist, Matt Law, with his read on the situation:

Now that’s interesting.

Rangers were runners-up in last year’s Scottish Premiership, and as such have qualified for European football. In fact, they could be playing Champions League this season, up two goals on aggregate in their tie against Panathinaikos in the Champions League Qualification second round, with one of Viktoria Plzen or Servette to take on in the third round to enter the competition proper.

This means Rangers will have to juggle European football with a league campaign for at least part of their season, resulting in plenty minutes to be shared. They also are coached by ex-Southampton manager Russell Martin, who has Rangers playing a modern, possession and passing focused style; not unlike the tactics that Frank will attempt to implement at Spurs.

This makes a season at Ibrox a pretty good landing spot for Mikey. It’ll help grow the physical side of his game too (assuming he returns with his ankles intact), the Scottish Prem notorious for sometimes brutal play.

That said, sending somebody so young away from home is a risky move, and he would be a valuable asset on Spurs’ UEFA List B as a player you could actually trust to play some minutes in the Champions League. Those are just two reasons why reports have indicated Spurs would prefer to keep Moore at the club for the time being, an approach with which I don’t necessarily disagree; however, he also needs minutes under his belt to continue to develop, and he and his representatives have apparently pushed hard in their preference for a loan. In fact, this push for such a move have reportedly been as part of contract talks, according to Alasdair Gold, and as such, it does make some sense to accede to Moore’s request.

These sorts of moves generally progress pretty quickly, so I’m sure we’ll get more details in the coming days.