Igor Tudor says Tottenham job is harder than he thought, Unai Emery's warning to his Aston Villa stars... and Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler reveals birthday plans: PREMIER LEAGUE LIVE
A big weekend of Premier League action awaits and several managers are taking their press conferences today to preview the matches. Stay here with Daily Mail Sport for all the latest...
This job is harder than I thought, admits Tudor
Igor Tudor fears the size of the task Tottenham is bigger and more challenging than he expected.
Tudor is less than a fortnight into his salvage operation, and his only game in charge was the 4-1 defeat at home to Arsenal.
'Probably, yes, I agree with you,' replied the interim boss when asked if the job was tougher than he thought it would be. 'Very tough.'
A run of nine Premier League games without a win has plunged Spurs to within four points of the relegation zone.
Arsenal thrashed Tottenham 4-1 in Igor Tudor's first match in charge last Sunday
Tudor’s appointment until the end of the season after Thomas Frank’s sacking was based upon his reputation for making an instant impact on ailing teams, including at Juventus and Lazio in Italy, but the 47-year-old Croatian agreed the scale of this task seemed greater because of the implications of relegation for a club of Spurs’ illustrious stature.
'Probably, if I see, if I recognise the difficulties there are, probably, yes,' he said. “It’s even a bigger challenge, even a bigger motivation to do this and we do it.'
Tudor said style of play and entertainment would have to take second place behind the desperate need for points. 'The style needs to be in the second moment, because now it’s a question of life and death,' he said. 'If I can use that term in a sporting way.'
Like Frank, however, he will not be throwing around the word ‘relegation’.
'No, I never used it,' said Tudor. 'Not because it’s too scary, or a "danger word", or because we won’t sleep. It’s because we need to refocus on ourselves. The same way I speak with my players. To be focused on ourselves, on the training.
'That’s the only thing we can change so there is nothing to think about. The future, or the points, even. The points come as a consequence of the training and the game. That’s the main and only focus we need to have.'
Tudor did, though, suggest his players may have to adopt the mindset of a 'small team' when asked whether he may have to settle for 'winning ugly' rather than playing good football.
'I think yes. We are working in that direction. In Italy they use the term, you know, have the mentality of a small team. In Italy that is the key, to always have motivation when you play big teams, so that’s the start of course and we work a lot on that. They are aware, of course they are aware.'
Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso are back in training and available for the trip to Fulham on Sunday, but Spurs are still without eight injured first teamers and Cristian Romero, who will serve the third of his four-match ban at Craven Cottage.
Micky van de Ven has a toe problem that is not expected to rule him out.
Tudor also responded to a video clip which has drawn attention online with Spurs fans claiming Van de Ven had been ignoring touchline instruction from the new boss during the Arsenal game.
Tudorsuggested Dejan Kulusevski is not far away from a return after a bad knee injury
'It was not an instruction to Micky,' said Tudor. 'It was an instruction to the team to go up. Micky is a fantastic guy, a very good professional, he would never do these things.'
Other injuries, he said, were being monitored on a ‘weekly basis’, including Dejan Kulusevski, who has not played this season and is still on a long road back from a serious knee injury.
'I know him from Juventus,' said Tudor. 'Fantastic player, fantastic guy. Difficult moment. He’s had really big problems, as you know, here. But he’s positive. Also, the doctors are positive. So we’ll see, next week, how it’s going.'
Matt Barlow
Okafor the only absentee as Farke urges his Leeds underdogs to bite back
Daniel Farke says Leeds are ready to thrive on their 'underdog' status against Manchester City at Elland Road on Saturday.
Leeds have lost only two of their last 14 league games in their fight for survival, while City are chasing a fourth straight win to keep the heat on title rivals Arsenal.
Farke said: 'We're looking forward to this game. We're facing the best and most successful side in the UK and world football over the last decade. They've won everything.
'It's a challenge we're looking forward to. It's always great to play at a packed Elland Road. We are of course the underdog, but we've shown several times that we can deliver convincing performances.
'We've worked so hard to be able to play against the top sides so we value being capable of being competitive with the best teams in the world.'
Leeds, for whom Noah Okafor is the only absentee, will take heart from the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium in November when they fought back from 2-0 down to level before losing out to Phil Foden's stoppage-time winner.
Farke added: 'It was definitely a really good away performance and one that gave the players more belief. We were able to give one of the best teams in the world a proper go.'
Le Bris offers support to Mundle after racist abuse
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has branded racist abuse directed towards Romaine Mundle 'unacceptable'.
The winger featured from the bench in the Black Cats' 3-1 defeat to Fulham on Sunday on a weekend that saw four separate cases of Premier League players receiving racist abuse and Le Bris reiterated the club's support for Mundle.
Romain Mundle was sent racial abuse on social media after Sunderland's defeat at Fulham
'What happened to Romaine is unacceptable, we stand with him,' said Le Bris. 'There is no room for racism or abuse in football or anywhere else. That's clear for us, we stand for respect, inclusion and diversity, these are the values of football and the values of the club, so it's clear.'
Speaking about wider racially motivated incidents in football in recent months, he added: 'I don't know really why but I repeat, we don't want to accept that.
'We have to have a clear position and I think it's the case here at Sunderland, we want to defend values and when someone, a group of people, want to threaten those values it's important to react.'
Mundle has joined Jocelin Ta Bi, Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey on the sidelines, while Dennis Cirkin and Reinildo Mandava are progressing well after injury but Saturday's game against Bournemouth comes too soon.
Le Bris said: 'About (Mundle's) injury, it might be a difficult injury and he might be sidelined for a few weeks or months. We still have further assessments to make but we'll have a clear picture soon.
'Jocelin might be in the same position as Romaine with a different injury, he might need surgery so a couple of weeks or months, still a bit early as well.
'It will be shorter for Nordi and Brian, between two or four weeks depending on the way they respond to treatments and rehab, so let's wait a bit, but it won't last too long.'
Emery out to win at Wolves...at last
Unai Emery has warned Aston Villa to avoid treating Wolves lightly due to his own poor record against the Premier League’s bottom club.
Emery has never won at Molineux as manager of Arsenal or Villa, losing three of his four games there and drawing the other.
‘We’ve been together three-and-a-half years, and we’ve drawn twice at Molineux and lost once,’ recalled Emery. ‘When I was at Arsenal, we were 3-0 down at half-time (before losing 3-1).
Unai Emery has seen Villa drop off the title pace with just one win in four league games
‘We beat them 1-0 earlier in the season and we didn’t deserve to win. They’ve lost some other games, against Chelsea and Bournemouth, where they haven’t deserved to lose. In their last home game, they drew with Arsenal, the best team in the Premier League and maybe the world.
‘Everything we have analysed makes us feel it is not an easy game, and it’s also a derby. They will want to show what they can do in front of their own fans.’
Tom Collomosse
Hurzeler's birthday plans: pasta and Forest on TV
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler plans to celebrate his 33rd birthday by watching weekend opponents Nottingham Forest over dinner.
Relegation-threatened Forest host Turkish side Fenerbahce on Thursday in the second leg of their Europa League knockout phase play-off before travelling to the Amex Stadium for Sunday's Premier League clash.
Hurzeler was presented with a cake ahead of his pre-match press conference and will spend the evening dividing his attention between friends, family, food and Forest.
'I think it will be: here's the iPad with the game and here's my pasta,' he said. 'That's how I expect the evening (to be), and sometimes conversation with others.
'Definitely we will have a look at this game. Of course we already prepared for Nottingham but there are always new things you can see, you adapt.
'It will definitely be a mix of having a good time, good dinner with my friends and family, but also watching a little bit of Nottingham Forest.'
Brighton snapped a six-match winless run in the top flight by beating Brentford 2-0 last weekend to ease growing pressure on Hurzeler.
Seagulls midfielder Yasin Ayari is pushing to feature against Forest following four games out with a dislocated shoulder.
