By Matt Smith
Each Monaco and Spurs arrive for this fixture in a barely out-of-sorts situation
Each Monaco and Spurs have been beneath par, of late. Spurs’ 2-1 house defeat towards Aston Villa on Sunday appeared to point that Thomas Frank’s plans for his crew aren’t fairly going in line with plan, however he’s not alone in being on this place. Their Champions League performances thus far have been underwhelming however roughly efficient, with a 2-2 draw towards Bodø/Glimt and a 1-0 house win towards Villarreal.
Like Spurs, Monaco began their season fairly properly, but additionally like Spurs, they’ve tailed off in latest weeks. They’re three video games with out a win in Ligue 1, and their Champions League performances thus far have hardly set the world alight both, with a 4-1 defeat at Membership Brugge of their opening match adopted up by a extra respectable 2–2 house draw towards Manchester Metropolis.
Monaco have a 100% aggressive document towards Spurs within the Champions League
These two golf equipment have solely been drawn collectively as soon as within the Champions League. This got here within the 2016-17 group stage, and Monaco gained each conferences 2-1. They ended that stage on the prime of the group – they had been finally eradicated within the semi-finals by Juventus – whereas Spurs completed third and had been transferred into the Europa League, the place they had been promptly knocked out within the Spherical of 32 by Belgian aspect Gent.
There was happier information for Spurs a season previous to this, once they met within the group phases of the Europa League. The 2 sides drew 1-1 in Monaco, however Spurs gained the return match at White Hart Lane 4-1. On that event, Spurs gained the group – and had been crushed within the Spherical of 16 by Borussia Dortmund – whereas Monaco completed third and had been eradicated.
Fati is again on type, Johnson must rediscover his
There’s one explicit objective risk for which the Spurs defence will have to be particularly ready. Ansu Fati has had a stop-start profession thus far. The younger ahead stays a Barcelona participant, and following a blended time on mortgage within the Premier League at Brighton in the course of the 2023-24 season he returned to Catalunya. Having failed to determine himself there, he was loaned out to Monaco for the 2025-26 season, the place he’s discovered his capturing boots once more, with six targets in six video games in all competitions.
One Spurs participant with some extent to show is ahead Brennan Johnson. He scored in Spurs’ first two Premier League matches of the season however hasn’t performed so once more since, and with solely a objective towards Doncaster Rovers within the EFL Cup to indicate for the final couple of months, his latest type in entrance of objective has turn out to be a little bit of a priority.
Monaco have modified supervisor, whereas Spurs have additional damage doubts
There have been two massive items of crew information from Monaco within the final couple of weeks. One considerations the person who’ll be choosing the crew. Adi Hutter was sacked in the course of the worldwide break and has been changed by the previous West Bromwich Albion left-back Sebastien Pocognoli. Pocognoli was at Union Saint-Gilloise final season, taking them to their first-ever Jupiler League title and their first ever look within the Champions League group stage.
Their massive damage information considerations Eric Dier, who was at Spurs for a decade earlier than going to Bayern Munich after which on to Monaco this summer time. Dier can have been wanting ahead to locking horns along with his former membership, however a muscle damage has rendered him injured for a couple of weeks and he is not going to be collaborating on this fixture. They will even be lacking Lamine Kamara, Denis Zakaria, Lukas Hradecky, Christian Mawissa, Paul Pogba and Vanderson.
Spurs have additional damage considerations, with Future Udogie, Cristian Romero and Ben Davies all uncertain, so as to add to their record of longer-term accidents, which nonetheless consists of James Maddison, Radu Dragusin, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke, Yves Bissouma and Kota Takai.
Monaco and Spurs appear more likely to cancel one another out
In seventh and sixth place of their home league respectively, Monaco and Spurs have each seen promising begins to their seasons tail off in latest weeks. Monaco have been in transition, with their managerial substitute, and so they have a confirmed goalscorer main their line. This might create issues for a Spurs defence which hasn’t stored a clear sheet because the twenty fourth September.
The monetary benefits conferred by being within the Premier League ought to hand a substantial benefit to Spurs for a fixture reminiscent of this, however seasoned Tottenham observers will already know that they only don’t appear to work in a logical sense, a lot of the time. Monaco want a win in the event that they’re to kick-start their Champions League marketing campaign and Spurs want a end result following a really disappointing house defeat to Aston Villa on the weekend. These two groups appear more likely to cancel one another out, so I’m going for a 1-1 draw.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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