Tottenham's nightmare habit they must break amid multiple injury woes

Tottenham Hotspur take on Arsenal in the first North London Derby of the season on Sunday afternoon, and Chris Waddle has handed some sage advice to his former club headed into the fixture

Tottenham Hotspur have been told they must break the habit of waiting to get going if they have any hopes of domestic or European success this season.

Thomas Frank's Lilywhites return to Premier League action on Sunday afternoon after a two-week international break, when they make the short trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Mikel Arteta's table-topping Arsenal. With just two wins from their last five league matches, it's been a topsy-turvy start to 2025/26 for Spurs.

Despite holding an overall record of five wins, three draws and three losses from their first 11, they still remain eight points shy of their bitter rivals in the league standings. And should Frank have any hope of bridging that gap come Sunday, he would be wise to heed the advice of club legend, Chris Waddle, who has identified that the club have fallen into quite the bad habit as of late.

Speaking on behalf of She Kicks, the former Spurs star who racked up 167 appearances for the side between 1985 and 1989, said: "Concentration and focus is the main thing. People want you to come out of the blocks quickly, and I think in Tottenham’s case, they first sometimes weigh up the opposition, and work out how they are set up.

"It might benefit them for now not to take risks early on, not pile forward and avoid getting picked off. A lot of teams will press and hurry early and perhaps Spurs don’t match that right now.

"For Tottenham, they’ve got a lot of injuries and they’re missing creativity on the pitch. I can see that they’re set up well and they press early.

"I know you have to start brightly and impose your authority on the game, especially early and at home. You need to put your opponents under pressure to get the crowd behind you.

"Tottenham wait a little too long to get going. I don’t think you can show that much respect to your opponent."

Waddle also took sympathy with his former club as a result of the amount of injuries Frank has had to navigate this term. He added: "But I feel for them too because they’re not able to create much

"[James] Maddison is not there, [Mohammed] Kudus is injured, [Dominic] Solanke is out. Those are the players who carry the ball and take risks, and they’re being cancelled out easily."

It comes as both Arsenal and Spurs head into Sunday's encounter with their fair share of injuries. On the red side, Gabriel, Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are still on the road to recovery, while Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke are all touch and go.

Meanwhile, the Lilywhites will be without Maddison and Solanke, although Frank revealed during a press conference on Friday that a number of stars were set to return to the fold in a major boost. When asked about Solanke, Pape Sarr, Randal Kolo Muani and Lucas Bergvall, he replied: "They are good, most of them.

"Pape trained today. He's ready, available. Lucas trained today. Ready, available. Kolo Muani, yes. Trained today. Available, of course has a mask [he] needs to play with. And Dom is not ready yet.

"I think he also had an article recently where he spoke about it. So we are very, as I said, the same. Very aware that when we put him out there, we want to be absolutely sure, as sure as we can be, that no setback going forward. So I'm comfortable he will soon be ready, but I will not put a timeframe on it."

Speaking on Archie Gray, he added: "He trained with the team as well," before confirming that Kudus was also back in training. He then turned his attention to Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies and Kota Takai, explaining: "Radu, very happy. He has probably been in that for a couple of weeks now. Full training, full in, everything.

"With the team, played his first 45 minutes in nine months, something like that, last Wednesday, I think it was. Very happy with that. Trained fully today. Now he's definitely getting very close to being able to be selected.

"Now it's just a matter of performance and probably just a few more game minutes to be fully available. Kota and Ben both trained with the team today, so that's also positive."