Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has called up a barely-seen young player to first-team training ahead of their clash with Arsenal.
Arsenal vs Tottenham
The north Londoners are set for a very interesting battle on Sunday with both sides heading into the 90 on a fierce fun of form. Spurs and Arsenal have won four out of their opening five Premier League matches so far; remaining unbeaten while sending a real statement to the rest of this division.
Postecolgou's side, over their last four games, have reigned victorious in each of them. Wins over Bournemouth, Man United, Burnley and Sheffield United in that order have showcased both an exciting new style and the mentality of champions.
Spurs were forced to dig deep for their latest three points, with Sheffield United giving them a real scare last Saturday. Gustavo Hamer's opener was later cancelled out by two last gasp strikes from Richarlison and Dejan Kukusevski deep into added time. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was sent into raptures and Postecoglou has said that the Spurs fan base should enjoy every second of this imperious run.
"No, no, no, let them go, let them go and enjoy it," said Postecoglou after their victory over the Blades. "My role is not to burst people's bubbles. Let them get excited, let them get ahead of themselves. That's the beauty of being a supporter.
"They go through enough pain mate, you want to let them enjoy it. If they think we're going to be world beaters then great, that's up to us to match that expectation. Our supporters deserve to have some happiness and enjoy it any way they want to."
Meanwhile, Arsenal have notched league victories over Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Man United and Everton – with their only dropped points coming in a 2-2 draw to Fulham last month. The Gunners have been forced to dig deep in a fair few of those games, especially wins against the likes of Forest, Palace and Everton.
They were all secured by narrow one-goal margins with Arteta hailing his side's quality and belief in their last domestic outing at Goodison Park.
“Six years without a win here is a long time, so we had to learn some lessons, we had to be better." said Arteta. "I am delighted for the win but especially the way we won it, the way we played, how dominant we were, the presence that we showed on the pitch. We fully deserved to win the game.
“I think we had many other openings to put the ball in the last line and to put somebody in the box and finalise. Credit to Everton, they defended the box extremely well, and they had some big, big blocks when we opened them up. It’s great to have other ways to score goals, it gives you different resources and be more unpredictable."
Latest Tottenham news
It will be interesting to see who features on Sunday, with a video from Tottenham's YouTube channel (via The Boot Room) sharing that young defender Nile John has actually been called up to senior training ahead of the encounter.
John has made just one first-team appearance for the club so far, having been on loan spells at the likes of Charlton Athletic. He has been revered for his "quality" in recent seasons by members of the media, and it will be interesting to see if the 20-year-old can do enough to earn a spot for Postecoglou over this campaign.