Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion were in pre-season action over the weekend, with the main Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points discussed below.
Our pre-season minutes tracker is already fully updated from these fixtures, as is our pre-season guide.
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TOTTENHAM 5-1 SHAKHTAR DONETSK
- Goals: Kane x4 (inc one pen), Scarlett
- Assists: Maddison x2, Kulusevski x2, Solomon
In a dominant display, Spurs thrashed Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 on Sunday.
The hosts registered 32 efforts on goal – taking them to over 100 shots across their three pre-season friendlies – and 67% possession, stats which will please new boss Ange Postecoglou.
“The intent is there. The players are trying to put in place everything we’re talking about, everything we’re working on. The second half was much better, we played the game in the opposition’s half, we didn’t let them get out. They tired a little, because when you play high-tempo football, it puts pressure on the opposition, and we need to understand that when we try to take a breather, we’re giving the opposition a breather as well. We don’t want to do that.” – Ange Postecoglou
A certain Harry Kane (£12.5m) was responsible for the first four goals and the Australian said he would have no problem selecting his star striker at Brentford, despite continued speculation linking him with a move to Bayern Munich.
“There’s no doubt that I would use Harry, I don’t need today to tell me that. He’s a fantastic striker, one of the world’s best. I think the way the team plays will help him as well. He loves scoring goals and you saw today we created a load of chances and he was the beneficiary of that.” – Ange Postecoglou on Harry Kane
While Kane grabbed the headlines, the performances of James Maddison (£7.5m) and Dejan Kulusevski (£7.0m) are also worth noting.
Both players underwhelmed in 2022/23 for various reasons but each of them supplied a pair of assists here, registering two shots/six key passes and four shots/three key passes respectively.
Maddison drew the penalty that Kane converted before grabbing another assist from a deep cross, with lots of pressing from the front.
“I thought Madders, I mean his football was unbelievable, but I thought his pressing was really good in the second half and that set the tone for us. For all the team, when you see your attacking players doing those things, it kind of inspires everyone else to work hard and that’s the thing I look for.” – Ange Postecoglou on James Maddison
Above: James Maddison (left) and Dejan Kulusevski’s (right) touch heatmaps v Shakhtar, via Sofascore
New faces Guglielmo Vicario (£5.0m) and Destiny Udogie (£4.5m) also started, with the latter particularly impressive, overlapping but also moving into more central areas in possession.
Richarlison (£7.0m), however, was absent from the matchday squad having picked up a minor knock, although he is expected to be fit for Tuesday’s final pre-season friendly in Barcelona.
“We’ve had a disrupted pre-season. We had a game cancelled and the other fixture we had different opposition to what we were expecting. We feel we probably are a little bit behind but today’s game hopefully edges us closer and we’ve got Barcelona on Tuesday so we can get some more match minutes into guys. The players are working hard and trying to adopt the methodology and the way we want to play. You can see there is progression there but there is still a long way to go and players still to come into the squad as well, who have to be integrated into it so we’ve still got a big amount of work to do.” – Ange Postecoglou
Tottenham Hotspur XI: Vicario, Royal, Romero, Davies, Udogie, Hojbjerg, Sarr (Skipp 87), Maddison (Lo Celso 77), Kulusevski, Son (Solomon 77), Kane (Scarlett 80)
BRIGHTON 1-1 RAYO VALLECANO
- Goal: Joao Pedro (pen)
- Assist: Estupinan
Brighton rounded off their pre-season preparations with a deserved 1-1 draw against Rayo Vallecano at the Amex.
After a Jason Steele (£4.5m) error had gifted the visitors the opener, Albion were awarded a second-half penalty when Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m) was brought down in the box.
And it was Brighton’s new number nine Joao Pedro (£5.5m) who stepped up to convert his second penalty of summer, despite Pascal Gross (£6.5m) being on the pitch at the same time.
The Brazilian started up front alongside Danny Welbeck (£6.0m), who hit the woodwork twice, and was his side’s main threat in attack, which has seen his ownership rise to 7.4% in FPL.
Elsewhere, Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) and Solly March (£6.5m) regularly swapped wings to keep their Spanish opponents guessing, with the former fashioning a couple of decent chances for himself.
Roberto De Zerbi used 21 players, including Lewis Dunk (£5.0m), who played his first minutes of pre-season, although Moises Caicedo (£5.0m) was not involved due to a tight hamstring.
“We are starting I think the most important season in our career, until now. We have to be happy, to be proud, because we have the possibility to play in the Europa League and to fight another year in the Premier League.
I think we can become stronger than last year. We lost Mac Allister and Levi Colwill but we brought new players. All of these are very good players. Different for (Mo) Dahoud and Milner because they are not so young. But Joao Pedro, Adingra, Igor, have big potential and we have to find the balance between the players who played last year with me and the new players.” – Roberto De Zerbi
Brighton and Hove Albion XI: Steele (Verbruggen 45), Gross, Webster (van Hecke 45), Dunk (Igor Julio 63), Estupinan (Milner 71), Gilmour (Veltman 45), Dahoud (Alzate 77), March (Adingra 63), Mitoma (Enciso 71), Joao Pedro (Ferguson 71), Welbeck (Lallana 63)
