Xavi's unseen impact on two Tottenham wonderkids and what Son told Spurs players in dressing room

Here are our Tottenham talking points after the 3-0 victory against Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Tuesday evening

It was somewhat fitting that Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus would be Tottenham's goalscorers in their latest Champions League triumph.

For the Dutchman and Ghanaian look set to be the fulcrum that Thomas Frank can use to lever his Tottenham attack, while he waits for his other creative players to return from the treatment room.

The bond between Xavi and Kudus is growing with every passing game and it's no coincidence that after struggling to get a shot on target in their previous four first halves of football, so Spurs have got both men in the line-up and racked up 31 shots at goal and 17 of them on target across the past two matches.

The north London side have scored five goals across those two home games and kept two clean sheets, their first back-to-back wins since mid-September and first consecutive clean sheets since August.

After this latest victory, Xavi posted on his Instagram the simple message: "Sit and enjoy."

Spurs fans have finally been able to do exactly that again at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and this latest win made it 23 games undefeated at their home in European competition, stretching back to 2020.

A relatively low number of 47,281 fans attended this latest Champions League game, with rows of empty seats across the stadium after years of being desperate to get back into Europe's top tier competition. The absences came down to pricing in certain areas and the inability to put the game on general sale due to fears over fans from Slavia, who requested the relocation of Spurs' rainbow pride flag from next to their section, gaining access to problematic areas amongst the Tottenham fans.

Those Tottenham supporters who attended the game got to see another enjoyable game of attacking football, albeit with Guglielmo Vicario having to make four saves at the other end to keep out a Prague side that were dangerous on the break.

Xavi and Kudus were the crucial cogs in the Tottenham attack and all of Tottenham's eight wins since the former's arrival from RB Leipzig have come with him in the starting line-up.

While this was not as eye-catching as his display against Brentford, the 22-year-old still showed that Spurs just play better with him flitting between the lines and linking up the midfield and attack.

Both he and Kudus are growing in confidence and between them the pair now have four goals and nine assists, with six of those goal involvements coming in the past four matches.

With Slavia employing a fierce, man-to-man pressing tactic, it was Xavi and Kudus' ability to turn and beat their man that cut the visitors' game plan to ribbons.

"Mo started the season quite well. Then he had a dip, and now I think the last three performances or something like that, it seems we had that freshness, energy, acceleration, decisiveness in his actions," said Frank. "And Xavi's two performances have been positive. So that of course is so important, what I call form, sharpness, getting more in sync with each other, the team. I think all that is important."

The two men must do their part in helping to fill the gaping chasm left by the departed Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, who was back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday night to finish off his mural on the high street and say a proper goodbye, including an invitation he might regret for everyone to come over to his place in Los Angeles.

The South Korean star, who gave 10 years and a trophy to Tottenham, saw his former team-mates in the tunnel before the game and then went up to sit in the director's box next to Nick Beucher, part of the new-look Lewis family group running the club.

After the victory, Son went down to the dressing room to properly catch-up with his friends, telling off Archie Gray that he hadn't messaged him once, with the teenager pointing out the 33-year-old changed his number to an American one and hadn't given him it.

Richarlison, in true Richarlison fashion, told Son that he should be thankful he won the Europa League for him, to which his former captain informed him: "That was Brennan."

Kudus revealed what Son had said in his address to the players in the dressing room: "He said keep going. It’s a long season, a long journey and to focus and keep doing what we are doing.

"He is a legend here. I wish we played together a bit longer because I only had a few games with him in pre-season, but it’s really good to have him here. He is a big example to all of us here in how to represent the club and do our best for the club.

"It was a pleasure to have him in the dressing room and talk a little bit with him. I am just sad we didn't play together, but that’s football. It was nice to see him."

Xavi echoed similar sentiments about the former Spurs skipper despite their time at the club not crossing over.

"I didn’t meet Son personally [before] and now a little bit. He is a big legend for the club and it's a real pleasure for me to take this number and build my own legacy, so really happy to meet him," said the Dutchman.

That number seven is now Xavi's and as Son was the inspiration for the young players at the club and looked after them when they joined in first team training, so the £51million arrival from RB Leipzig has been doing similar.

The Netherlands international has taken a shine to two of Spurs' talented 17-year-old attackers, Luca Williams-Barnett and Tynan Thompson, and the trio have hit it off in first team training.

That's why as Williams-Barnett plundered a club record five UEFA Youth League goals in the U19s' 9-1 rout of Slavia, also a record win, and Thompson sealed his own hat-trick, the duo both used Xavi's telephone celebration.

Right-back James Rowswell had rounded off the scoring in that game earlier in the afternoon at Hotspur Way, with Williams-Barnett and Callum Olusesi, who bagged three assists as skipper, both then whisked away to be on the bench for the first team.

That Champions League debut will come eventually for Williams-Barnett especially, who has the potential to be one of Spurs' brightest homegrown talents in years, as evidenced by the technique of his goals, including a free-kick into the top right corner of the net.

The youngster could do a lot worse than studying Xavi in training, for the Dutchman has come up through clubs like Barcelona and PSG, along with taking on the running required at Leipzig, and works as hard in training to push himself as he does in matches.

"I like his work ethic," Frank said of Xavi. "For example, there was a great recovery run at 90-plus minutes where he just got all the way back, which is crucial for me, for us, for everyone, to work very hard. So I like his overall performance.

"He built on the good game on Saturday, produced again. Good link-up play, nice turns in the middle of the pitch, where he also got that acceleration to go past the player and open up the spaces."

Xavi also seems to have struck up a relationship with Spurs captain Cristian Romero, no doubt helped by his ability to speak Spanish from those years at the Catalan giants.

After David Zima had headed Romero's flick-on from Pedro Porro's corner into his own net for Tottenham's 100th Champions League goal, Xavi and Richarlison had both wanted to take the early second half penalty when Porro was chopped down in the Slavia box after a great pass from Archie Gray.

Romero marched over, ignored the pleas of the two attackers, and handed the ball to Kudus to fire down the centre of the goal and into the net. That sparked the Ghanaian's trademark sitting on a stool celebration, only with Richarlison and Djed Spence both grabbing stools to join him to create a great image.

With Kudus off the pitch for the second penalty, given when Xavi was brought down after running on to Randal Kolo Muani's chest down, the Frenchman initially grabbed the ball but again in marched Romero.

The skipper could see Xavi's pleas and put his hand on the Dutchman's face before pushing it playfully away and handing him the ball. The spot kick was a close one with Slavia goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek getting a hand to it, but he could only help it on its way into the bottom right corner of the net.

While it had looked like Romero had decided on the penalty takers on the night, Frank made it very clear that he was just following instructions.

"It's clearly decided before. So that was no problem. It was exactly how it should be," the Dane told football.london. "Yeah [he was just enforcing the agreed order], yeah. I don't think there was... I don't know, he was [having] a little bit of a banter with Xavi and I think it was more that."

There were some good performances dotted across the team with Gray getting the chance to make back-to-back starts in the midfield and again showing that he can work as part of a shield behind Xavi, while also making plenty of breaks forward himself, and playing that perfect pass to Porro before the first penalty from Joao Palhinha's quick free-kick.

Guglielmo Vicario was again cheered loudly when his name was read out in the team before kick-off and the Italian had to make those four decent saves against the Czech side to preserve a second consecutive clean sheet.

Another big ovation came for Ben Davies in the 68th minute as he stepped on to the pitch for his first minutes of the season. It was fitting that the Welshman should return to the turf as his best friend Son stepped back inside the stadium and the fans gave a big reception to the defender who has given 11 years of service to the north London club.

The only negative on the night was a yellow card for Micky van de Ven for a needless throwing back of his elbow into Mojmir Chytil's face as he ran away from the Slavia attacker. The booking rules the Dutchman out of the trip to Borussia Dortmund and left Frank furious and jabbing the side of his head repeatedly, as if to say 'use your head'.

In a somewhat subdued press conference after a big Champions League win, the Spurs boss told football.london of that moment: "Yeah [frustrated] which I understand of course. But that was the minor negative thing here. It is what it is."

Van de Ven now cannot play in that big game in Germany, with Spurs likely to need to win that match and the home game against Frankfurt if they are to stand a chance of qualifying in the top eight and avoiding the play-off round.

They are all but through at least to the knockout stages due to the number of teams below their ninth spot down to the final qualifying 24th place.

One man who could now potentially play in Dortmund is Mathys Tel after Spurs used the UEFA rule that allows a team to bring in a squad substitute if a player has been ill or injured for 60 days. It can only be done up until the sixth game of the group phase, the game against Slavia.

You cannot normally change an association trained player for a non-locally trained player, but Spurs have been able to register the four required association trained players in Spence, Gray, Davies and Brennan Johnson, which allowed Dominic Solanke to move into the main group, so he could be replaced by Tel.

The UEFA rule states that Solanke can come straight back in for Tel when he returns to fitness.

Frank made it clear that Solanke has not suffered a setback in his return from an ankle injury and football.london understands that fan fears that the England striker could be out for another couple of months are believed to be wide of the mark.

"No [setback]. It was just an opportunity to get Tel in, which is nice to have that opportunity. And we can change back if we want to do that," said the Tottenham head coach.

"As I understand it, it's something with 60 days. An injured player needs to be injured for 60 days, relatively complicated, so it's not like I could have done it three games ago. Plus it's also depending on how long will Dom be out and so on. So that's why there was an opening now, that we could do it and we can change it again, so that was good."

Frank has drawn a clear line in the sand that he will no longer speak about Solanke or Dejan Kulusevski's return timeframes, despite the media and the fans' frustration with the mystery surrounding both.

When asked if Solanke would be back for the Frankfurt match on January 28, Frank would only repeat: "I think I've said before that as soon as he's ready and available, then I will say when he's ready."

At least Tel can now get his chance across all competitions if Frank uses him, and the Frenchman brought a directness to his left wing play, including some fast feet and a shot that Stanek saved before denying Pape Matar Sarr from the follow-up.

Tel replaced Odobert, who started the game with a bang, with a run and low cross within 35 seconds that Richarlison managed to send unmarked against the goalkeeper's shoulder. Other than a shot of his own saved by the keeper, Odobert drifted out of the game with the man-to-man coverage.

"For Wilson he's a young player. He no doubt learned a lot from this game today. I agree, I think it was a great action after 30 seconds where he got the better of his opponent," he said.

"Then I think second half also got into a very good chance, good finish, great save from their keeper. Then there was definitely a situation, as you said, where he needed to protect the ball better and handle the aggressive pressure."

On the whole though this was another positive performance by Tottenham as they've started to beat the teams they should be beating and most notably at home.

After the recent run of games in such a short space of time, Frank has given the players two days off to refresh and recharge their minds and bodies before returning to Hotspur Way on Friday to prepare for the battle against Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest side at the City Ground on Sunday.

After that there is a chance to breathe, with six days before the home game against Liverpool and eight then until Tottenham's derby at Crystal Palace, thanks to the less cluttered festive schedule.

It's only a temporary reprieve though as January launches into another breathless schedule with matches at weekends and almost all of the midweeks.

Spurs should get some faces back in the changing room and the club will look to strengthen in the winter window, with the promise of backing from the Lewis family.

This felt like a week when the Thomas Frank era kicked back in the right direction, thanks to the boots of a Dutchman and Ghanaian, and now Spurs need to harness that momentum and surge into 2026.