The Athletic FC

Welcome to the preview from the Athletic FC

It's the show where we get you set for the weekend's Premier League action

This week we're looking ahead to Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City

And on board today we have two storewards of this club slash podcast Stu James is here here. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. Good morning, Matt. Good morning to you too. We've also got fresh from his Australian Odyssey, a welcome home to Tim Spears. You okay, Tim? Oh, thanks. Yeah, good to see you, Matt. Not even the first time I've welcomed you home, to be totally honest. So it will definitely be the last. I'll say that much. Right. Later in the show, we're going to get into some of the other big

matchups of Match Week 24. But first, let's get to our feature presentation. So then, is it Tottenham

the tumultuous or Sprightly Spurs pitching up in North London this weekend? Frank's European

freewheeler's beat

Iron Track Frankfurt 2-0 on Wednesday to secure a fourth place finish in the Champions League

League phase. Meanwhile, Thomas's tank in the Premier League, a snatch point at Burnley last weekend,

did little to win over the doubters in the away end. Might be stew, there was slightly lower pressure game for him, this one, not so much expectation on it, coming into it off the back of a good win, already beaten City this season. Yeah, though I don't know whether there's much expectation with Spurs' full stop now, and I don't say that in a glib way. I just think drawing 2-2 at Burnley last Saturday wasn't really that surprising.

Domestically, I just think we've become used to seeing Tottenham toiling now and really looking

like a team without any clear identity. Obviously, the Champions League is a totally different story.

You know, when I think about this scenario now in the game this weekend, my mind goes back.

You know, you think of Frank Spursman City. It goes back to the opening day of the

2021-22 season when Noonan was in charge. Tottenham 1-1-0, courtesy of a goal from Son. It was a really

well-organized counter-attacking display, albeit with a man in charge there who I don't think anyone

really thought of as a Spurs manager and there's

kind of parallels with that now perhaps Thomas Frank can engineer something similar this weekend but

even if he does what does it really mean Matt you know there's a much broader picture here I don't

think beating Manchester City in a one-off game will repair the damage caused by the matches against

Brentford, Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley. So that's the challenge for him to prove over

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