Tottenham Hotspur

Odobert eyeing a good performance against boyhood club PSG  Tottenham Hotspur

Thomas Frank spoke to the media alongside Wilson Odobert at Parc des Princes on Tuesday evening ahead of our UEFA Champions League league phase MD5 against holders PSG on Wednesday night (8pm UK).

Here's what Thomas had to say...

Can we start off with team news?

Thomas: "Good evening, everyone is available after Arsenal."

After the nature of the approach against Arsenal, is it vital that you show some attacking intent tomorrow night?

Thomas: "I think the performance is always the most important thing, because if you do that on a consistent basis you have a bigger chance of getting results. I watched the game back, that was a hard watch. We were not good, bad performance, not running away from that in any way. The biggest thing was that there was plenty of intent and what we wanted to do, but we just couldn't execute it on the day. The biggest thing for me, the most disappointing thing, was that we were not able to compete and I was convinced that we could compete on the day. That didn't happen. We had 53 situations where it was like a dual, a second ball situation where Arsenal went long, we went long, like in a normal football game. We came out on top in 17 of those and lost 36. If you don't do that, that is the basic, then it's very difficult to win a football match. Tomorrow we are facing another of the best teams in Europe away from home. It's a nice challenge that we 100% opt for and I'm convinced we'll bounce back with a good performance."

You were visibly angry at the Emirates and seem pretty annoyed still by the performance - have you seen the same anger from the players?

Thomas: "Yeah, no doubt. I think it's been two good days with talks and meetings. A meeting yesterday of course, a main meeting, and a meeting today, a main meeting mainly about us - how we improve, how we go forward, because in football there are setbacks and it was a setback on Sunday. It's all about how you react because one thing for sure, you're not going through life without setbacks, you're not going throughout the football season without setbacks. It's how you react to it."

Randal Kolo Muani is eligible to face his parent club. He's had a stop-start start to life at Tottenham, mainly due to injury. How frustrated has he been? How desperate is he to make a big impact at Spurs?

Thomas: "Of course he wants to perform, every player wants to perform and show their best, no doubt about that. He came, very happy to join Tottenham and perform for us and we were very happy to have him. Then he got a dead leg that took longer than we thought it would do. Then he got the broken jaw, so it’s been a bit stop-start. Plus he came and was not fully fit, he was fit, but he was not top fit because he came from a pre-season where he has been playing a little bit of catch-up. I am convinced you'll see more and more good stuff from him."

How have you tries to reset the squad?

Thomas: "When you have tough defeats, and tough defeats can be two different things, but especially if you don't hit a top performance, if you hit a bad performance, that's where I need a bit deeper analysis and talk about a bit of a reset, but definitely a bounce back. As I said from the beginning when I came in, we are in a fantastic four-game spell, if you can say that. Four games in 10 days - Arsenal away, PSG away, Fulham home and Newcastle away. Three very difficult away grounds and a difficult game against Fulham. Two of the best teams in Europe in three days. That's the challenge we want. That's the challenge we want to embrace, and on the way to be very competitive, there will be ups and there will be downs. It's how we react to it, how we learn from it. The players will learn from it, I will learn from it and we'll move forward from here."

After the fall out from playing a back five at Arsenal, would you have any hesitation about playing that back five again, as you did in the UEFA Super Cup?

Thomas: "The beauty of the first part of your question is good, because all the fall out there - I don't read anything, no articles, no social media, so I don't know if there was a fall out. Of course, my good friend here to my right said there could come a question about that. We'll go back to the first question, the thing was with we didn't win enough of these duels. We were not aggressive enough. We were not going forward enough and playing forward enough. If you play 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 7-9-13, it doesn't matter. If you're not doing that, I'm not in doubt about it."

You had a good start - the performance against PSG, the win at City but it's now three wins in 11 - why do you think things have started to unravel a little? How confident are you of getting this project back on track?

Thomas: "That's a good question. I think there will always be a little, how can you say, the performance is a little bit up and down. If we play 60 games in a season, there will be maybe 10 to 12 perfect games. Then there will be 30 average plus games, some average and some below that. It's about being consistent enough and perform at a high enough level and be competitive in the games. I think we accept some games because one thing is defeat. Except for the Arsenal game, I think the other games we've been competitive in. It's about that - keep doing everything we can to be better and better, to create enough chances to win the football matches. We have still scored quite a few goals. My teams have always scored goals. So, we'll keep working hard on it."

You've got this great mantra, if you don't take risks, you aren't taking risks. Does it frustrate you or maybe hurt you when people claim that this team of yours isn't taking risks?

Thomas: "If they don't think we do... I think we do. Maybe we should do more. I think it's fair to ask the question We're not creating enough chances, which is reality. It's my job to do everything to make sure that we do what we can to create more and more chances, be better and better at it. That's what we work very hard on every day, to find the right formula for that. That's part of the play, but part of it is also how aggressive we are under pressure, how we can win it, half-transitions, full-transitions. I think it's also fair to say that three of Arsenal's goals were half-transitions and transitions. That's where we need to be good as well, in those situations."

What does Randal Kolo Muani offer that's different to the other forwards you have?

Thomas: "I like his link up play. I think he's very good at that. I think his ability to run in behind and also his ability to go one-vs-one. I think he's very good in those situations. I think that's probably the little difference. He's also good in the box."

You mentioned the 53 duals - when you're analysing them, was there a particular reason why you lost 36 of them or a particular pattern emerging?

Thomas: "It was very simple. We were not aggressive enough, in my opinion, when we pushed forward. We were not securing the ball well enough. It's also part of that. We were not landing in the right areas for where the second ball landed and stuff like that. That was the main thing."

How important do you think it is that they (the club) stick with you and have some continuity?

Thomas: "Very important! Part of taking this job was to sit here and have the challenges. Of course, I would love to sit here and we're beating Arsenal and then face Paris tomorrow night. We lost badly. Part of that is to manage those setbacks and learn from it and move on from here. One thing I'm 1,000% sure of, I know how to build a team. I know how to build a club. We will do that. Along the way, we will learn. The big thing is how we learn from the bad spells. When we go 1-0 down, how do we react as a team? The best teams just continue to move on. They still run hard. They still do the same thing. No doubts in that. The first four months, I learned a lot about the team. I learned a lot about the individual players. All that learning needs to materialise to how we find the right formula with the right players on the pitch and also with some players coming back. Then we play every third day. That's the big challenge, but that's what I embrace."

When you say you know how to build a club, I guess that's time, isn't it? It's players getting used to your methods?

Thomas: "Yeah, of course. Enrique here at PSG, this is his third season. He also had to take a lot of battles. Those years also turned everything around from playing with the biggest players in Europe to less stars, very determined players that play for the team. He created one of the best teams in the world by making those changes. Even last year, it was the beauty of football. A fantastic season, winning the treble. They were close to getting knocked out of the Champions League. It's margins sometimes."

How much work have you invested in changing the team from the way you played last season? When you went to Brentford and you came up, you said that you started by making sure they were solid at the back. Has the same operation started the same way at Spurs, I suppose?

Thomas: "I think that was the, how can I say, for me the biggest thing to focus on. Again, no team will win anything if they can't defend. If you look at the team that is on top of the table, no matter how hard and how tough it is to name Arsenal, as a Tottenham head coach, they defend very well. Liverpool when they won, they defend very well. City when they won, they defend very well. So that's part of it. Then we hope we can keep up creating chances that we struggle a little bit with, so we need to look into that as well. But defence is part of it, it's just very important."

How conscious are you of the way that the fans at Spurs demand that you play, and how realistically does it take to put something a bit more adventurous on top of being solid at the back?

Thomas: "I hope it will not take that long time, but I think it's fair to say, I think the young man next to me (Wilson) who actually goes through it, I think he's a fantastic player, I think he's got a huge potential. I also think he, compared to last season, really taking a step up and I have a big hope for Wilson. But he's still taking over from a top player in Sonny, for example, who played last year, and Maddison and Solanke and Kulusevski, who was the main guy. That's not to say that Wilson, Brennan, Mo, Xavi, Matty, Richy, whatever, they can't do it. It just takes a little bit of time in that. And then the next bit, we have to play every third day in Premier League and in Champions League. It's not complaint, it's just the way it is. It just makes it a little bit more complicated."

Thomas Frank has no further concerns on the injury front ahead of facing holders PSG in MD5 of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday evening (8pm UK).

A number of players returned from injury in Sunday's north London derby including Mo Kudus, who started, Randal Kolo Muani and Pape Matar Sarr, who both came off the bench and Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, who were unused substitutes.

Brennan Johnson is the only additional player missing - he's suspended after his red card last time out against FC Copenhagen.

Speaking to us from the Parc des Princes after his pre-match press conference, Thomas confirmed: "Everyone who was available for Arsenal is available for PSG, so that's good."

Long-term absentees Radu Dragusin, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke remain sidelined, although Radu is now training with the team, alongside recent returnees Ben Davies and Kota Takai.

Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique has confirmed that 2025 Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembele could be back for his side on Wednesday night.

As we head to Paris to take on the UEFA Champions League holders Parc de Princes, Dembele, who scored 35 goals in 53 games last term, is expected to return from an injury which has kept him out since PSG's 3-1 defeat to FC Bayern at the start of the month.

We have been drawn away to Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the Subway Women’s League Cup.

The winners of that tie will then be away to the winners of the match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal in the semi-finals of the competition.

The draw for both the quarter- and semi-finals was conducted this evening, meaning all remaining teams in the competition now know their potential route to the final.

Quarter-final ties are scheduled to take place over the weekend of 20-21 December, with the semi-finals taking place over the weekend of 21-22 January, 2026.

We secured our spot in the last eight of the competition after an unbeaten run in the group stage, drawing with Aston Villa and winning the subsequent penalty shootout before defeating Birmingham City and Bristol City.

United are one of three clubs entering the competition at the quarter-final stage as participants of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Details on the exact date and kick-off time for our quarter-final clash, along with ticketing information, will be announced in due course.

Subway Women’s League Cup quarter-final draw

Liverpool v Chelsea

Crystal Palace v Arsenal

Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur

West Ham United v Manchester City

Subway Women’s League Cup semi-final draw

Our Academy returns to UEFA Youth League action away to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday afternoon – and you’ll be able to watch the game live on SPURSPLAY!

After a much-changed side slipped to a home defeat to FC Copenhagen last time out, Wayne Burnett’s charges will be eyeing a return to form after a blistering start to the competition that saw us win our opening three games against Villarreal, Bodo/Glimt and AS Monaco.

PSG are sure to provide a stern test in the French capital – they could include some of the players who featured in a 2-0 win at Newcastle United Under-21s in the Premier League International Cup last week.

They’ve won two, drawn one and lost one of their four games in the league stage thus far.

Kick-off at PSG Campus is at 1.30pm UK time (2.30pm local time).

Tune in to SPURSPLAY from 1.25pm UK to watch the action live.

We’ll also keep supporters updated via our Academy social media channels, with a full report available here on tottenhamhotspur.com and the Spurs Official app after the game as usual.

Highlights | Victory at Monaco in latest UEFA Youth League away game

One of the voices of European football on talkSPORT and Sky Sports, well known for The Football Ramble podcast, an author and writer for The Guardian - and a regular contributor here at Spurs for almost 10 years - Andy Brassell will give his view on our UEFA Champions League opponents as part of our '60 seconds on...' pre-match feature this season.

Next up, it's MD5 and having faced them in in the UEFA Super Cup in August, it's our first Champions League encounter against holders and Ligue 1 giants, Paris Saint-Germain, at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening (8pm UK).

@andybrassell

State of play

Andy: “PSG played Le Havre this weekend and it was, I guess, a fair example of where they're at at the moment. Obviously, they're still the best team in Ligue 1, though they're getting some competition from Marseille, who've been very, very good this season. In the circumstances, they've done very well to stay top. Now, look, it might seem to a lot of people like it's obvious that PSG are top - they're the European champions, they're the best team in France, they're the wealthiest club in France, etc... but their schedule has been so extraordinary, really, over the last couple of years. They played every match it was possible to play last season, because they played in the play-off round of the Champions League as they didn't finish particularly high up in the league stage. Indeed, five, six matches into the league stage, it was in doubt whether they'd actually go through in the top 24. Then, at the end of the season, they played in the Club World Cup. So, this season was always going to be a bit of a balancing act - how do they manage the physical condition of the players? On the whole, Luis Enrique has done that quite well. They've had as many injuries as I think you would reasonably expect, but they've dealt with that quite well."

Chevalier impresses against Le Havre

Andy: "Saturday’s game against Le Havre was quite a good case in point. In the end, they won comfortably. You look at the numbers, they had loads of the ball, loads of shots, but Didier Digard, the former Middlesbrough player who is now Head Coach at Le Havre, got them to go there and play quite bravely and have a go at PSG in the first half, which nearly worked. Lucas Chevalier had one of his best games since arriving in Paris. He was really, really good. Obviously, it's a big ask trying to replace Gianluigi Donnarumma, he’s a different type of goalkeeper, but nevertheless he's got a huge thing to live up to succeeding Donnarumma in that way, especially after how he was the best goalkeeper in the Champions League last season. However, Chevalier was really good and they needed him to be, which maybe people would not expect."

PSG personnel - Neves the one to watch

Andy: "In terms of personnel, it was all good news for them against Le Havre. Nuno Mendes came back after his injury and he's the best left-back in the world. They desperately needed him, especially with Achraf Hakimi out on the other side. Warren Zaire-Emery, a midfielder, is playing right-back at the moment. Mendes got an assist as well. They were able to leave Marquinhos and Willian Pacho on the bench, unused subs, and bring back Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Fabián Ruiz and Bradley Barcola for little cameos. Barcola has played an extraordinary amount of football - over 90 games in the last 16 months, which is pretty insane! If you're looking at the dangermen for Spurs, João Neves is maybe, you could even argue, the best midfield player in the world at the moment. He's so, so good. He's scored again against Le Havre and he’s added goals to his game this season, including a hat-trick against Toulouse and for Portugal against Armenia last week."

PSG's story so far in this season's UCL

Andy: "This time around in the Champions League we've seen PSG - I guess because of their brush with not qualifying last season, which is remarkable given that they ended up winning it - go out and flattened teams. They scored four goals against Atalanta (4-0 win), seven against Bayer Leverkusen (7-2 away). They don't really want to leave anything to chance this time. So, you'd expect them to feel a strong line-up on Wednesday night. The team that Luis Enrique picked against Le Havre suggested that he will use Fabián Ruiz, Kvaratskhelia and Barcola probably from the start. So, even though they're missing Ousmane Dembélé and Desiré Doué, who are both still injured, they've still got plenty of options. I think the way that Enrique is juggling his resources - which are obviously very good resources - but they do have injuries to absolutely key players at the moment so, as I said, I think he's doing it very well."

Live Coverage: Spurs on international duty this November & December  Tottenham Hotspur

Our Women’s Under-19s will kick off the second phase of the Professional Game Academy (PGA) League with a trip to Leicester City.

Sabiha Jamal’s side will compete in the PGA Division Two for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign and it will begin with our young side travelling to the Foxes on Wednesday 3 December.

We’ll then face Liverpool in our first home game the following Wednesday (10 December) before taking on London City Lionesses at home on Wednesday 17 December.

The Under-19s will compete in Division Two for the second phase of the competition after finishing eighth in the Southern Division during the first phase, having picked up six points in nine games.

They’ll be joined alongside four sides that they faced in phase one (Crystal Palace, Charlton, Southampton and London City Lionesses) and five from the Northern Division (Leicester City, Birmingham City, Sheffield United, Liverpool and Newcastle United).

Women’s Under-19s fixtures confirmed for the 2025/26 campaign

Home matches in bold

Wed 3 Dec – Leicester City (A)

Wed 10 Dec – Liverpool (H)

Wed 17 Dec – London City Lionesses (H)

Wed 7 Jan – Newcastle United (A)

Wed 14 Jan – Birmingham City (A)

Sun 18 Jan – Sheffield United (H)*

Wed 28 Jan – Southampton (H)

Wed 4 Feb – Crystal Palace (A)

Wed 18 Feb – Liverpool (A)

Wed 25 Feb – Leicester City (H)

Wed 4 Mar – Charlton Athletic (H)

Wed 11 Mar – London City Lionesses (A)

Wed 18 Mar – Newcastle United (H)

Wed 25 Mar – Charlton Athletic (A)

Wed 1 Apr – Crystal Palace (H)

Wed 15 Apr – Birmingham City (H)

Wed 22 Apr – Southampton (A)

Wed 29 Apr – Sheffield United (A)

*Fixture subject to change

Brennan Johnson will be unavailable for selection when we take on Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night.

As we look to continue our unbeaten start to the competition's League Phase when we make the midweek trip to Paris, Brennan will unfortunately not be able to play as he is suspended for the game following his red card against FC Copenhagen last time out.

Scorer of the opener on Matchday Four as we ran out 4-0 winners over the Danish side, the forward was shown a red card following a VAR review just before the hour mark for his challenge on Marcos Lopez.

The dismissal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium means an automatic one-game ban for the Wales international meaning Thomas Frank will not be able to call on him at the Parc de Princes.

Micky van de Ven, Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani go into this game at risk of suspension for December's clash with Slavia Prague. All three head to Paris having had two bookings each in the campaign so far. A further yellow card in Paris would rule them out of the meeting with the Czech side next month.