Tottenham Hotspur had a devastating weekend as they were on the receiving end of a 4-1 thrashing against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s side dominated the Lilywhites in almost all departments.
To add salt to the wounds, we saw Spurs’ prime target for the summer, Eberechi Eze, score a hat trick against the side that he almost joined, showing the supporters exactly what they could have had. The Gunners were quite successful in carving the defence open.
The Lilywhites supporters were quite expectedly furious as they went on to storm out of that away end well before Michael Oliver blew the final whistle.
Thomas Frank barely had any sense of positive from his first north London derby on the touchline. Though hidden in all of that thumping was one useful takeaway, and no, it was not that long-range lob from Richarlison.
It was the performance that Djed Spence quietly put in. He enjoyed one of the best defensive performances of the ongoing 2025/26 campaign. And that was so in a game where almost everyone donning the Lilywhites badge seemed to lose their heads.
In a game where we barely saw any sense of control from the whole side, Spence continued to be disciplined as he showed his teammates how it’s done. And in the process the former Middlesbrough man staked his claim to start against Paris Saint-Germain.
Thomas Frank had a small positive from Arsenal defeat
The Dane head coach walked into that post-game press conference yesterday with every question aimed like a bullet towards him, and rightly so given how his back five tactics backfired. Tottenham ended up surrendering the game (in a sense, at least, it looked like it).
But when all is said and done and he walks into his office at Hotspur Way, he will look at that Spence performance as a big positive to take away from the 4-1 thumping at the Emirates Stadium. Ideally, while that scoreline makes it hard for you to point at a defender and sing his praises, most of the Gunners’ offensive sequences came from the middle.
So if the former Brentford manager was shown that he at least has one player he can count on who will stand up to his man even when the structure is all over the place. And this is where the 24-year-old goes straight to the top of the list of possible players that Frank could trust going into that all-important game in the midweek.
Let’s look at the numbers that Spence put up against the Gunners last weekend. He not only won 100 per cent of his tackles but also came out on top in 100 per cent of his aerial duels. And then when he went into ground duels, he came out on top half of the times. And then he was not dribbled past once despite the Gunners constantly having this pressure on the wings, showing how good Spence had been that evening.
But beyond duels, Spence also recorded three recoveries and a couple of clearances alongside one interception. (via. Sofascore)
So in a baseline which looked all over the place, those numbers look really solid.
And none of the goals that Arsenal scored that evening could be pinpointed down to him. Most of the damage came when Mikel Arteta’s side dominated the middle zones to capitalise on an awful afternoon from Bentancur.
Spence stuck to his basic defensive principles, and he did simple things well despite all the red chaos going on around him.
Djed Spence should start vs PSG
Given that the Lilywhites will have to be lining up to face the threat of Bradley Barcola on the left flank. This is where Frank will have to start strong right back.
And Porro is normally an attacking full-back, but his quality is undeniable, making him very hard to leave out. This is where we have often seen Spence being pushed over to the left channel every now and then.
But when facing PSG at Parc des Princes, you expect that the Lilywhites will see even less ball than they did at the Emirates (if that is possible). And the priority will need to be to stop the waves of attacking sequences.
And we know that Spence is more of a natural defensive option.
TTLB Opinion
While he does have decent crossing abilities, Spence will make a difference for the game structure that Tottenham would be expecting for the PSG game. Having Spence in the eleven doesn’t mean that it resolves the structural problems that the Lilywhites faced against Arsenal, where the Gunners overran the midfield and ended up exposing the centre-backs.
But it does end up giving Spurs a sense of armoury if Luis Enrique ends up going aggressive through the flanks.
Would you start Spence vs PSG? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
