Tottenham may have kickstarted their season away to Stoke at the weekend, but they’ll have had one eye on their huge clash with Monaco on Wednesday night.
Their first Champions League game is at Wembley against the Ligue 1 leaders, and having spent the last five season in the Europa League, Mauricio Pochettino’s side will be hoping to make their appearance in the Champions League this season count.
It’s a tough group, though, and given that Spurs haven’t yet hit top form this season, it’s going to be tricky to negotiate. With Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow lying in wait further on in the groups, Spurs need to get off to a winning start at Wembley against Monaco.
That will be easier said than done, though. Wednesday night’s opponents are in great form, they sit top of the Ligue 1 tree - albeit too early in the season to matter too much - and they vanquished Villarreal in the playoff round.
Monaco are no mugs, and the team from the Principality will pose a question or two for Pochettino’s men.
Here are five reasons Spurs may struggle at home to Monaco...
Nerves at first European game at Wembley - not really home
It’s a huge European night. It’s your first appearance in the Champions League in years. You’ve worked so hard to get there, not just on the field, but off it too, with years of developing players and having to replace departing heroes. And what happens in your first game back? You get to play at Wembley Stadium!
It sounds perfect, really, yet the reality is anything but. Moving into a new stadium isn’t easy, your fans don’t know where they’re sitting or who they’re sitting with, there’s a strange atmosphere, the pitch is different, the stadium layout is different. It’s all a bit weird. Ask West Ham...
But this is a massive game for Spurs. They have a hard group, and it’s a daunting task to have what is perhaps your biggest game in a strange atmosphere (at home to Monaco and Leverkusen are at the very least must-not-lose games for Spurs). It’s going to be tough on every conceivable front!
Monaco are on the up and have kept all their players
Monaco are a team very much in the Spurs mould at the moment.
They came into Ligue 1 with a big financial backing from Russian owners, but since then the club’s model has changed. They no longer splash money on the likes of Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez, but instead their plan as been to buy promising young players and develop them.
That model is coming to the fore at the moment, the team is sitting top of the league, they’ve already beaten PSG and given they haven’t had to sell big name players over the summer, things are starting to look very promising.
Look out for the likes of Bernardo Silva, Valere Germain, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar and Tiemoué Bakayoko - they are all players looking to make a mark on the world this season.
Solid defence
The Monegasques have the best goal difference in Ligue 1 so far. Their opening game was a bit of a dud as far as they were concerned, they scored two, but conceded two. Since then they’ve only conceded two goals, one against PSG in a 3-1 victory.
When they beat Villarreal in the playoff round, Monaco were solid defensively and looked dangerous on the break. Apart from the now-obligatory debut goal from Alexandre Pato, Monaco were fairly comfortable against a good team.
Spurs, meanwhile, are only just starting to fire when it comes to their attackers. Harry Kane got his first goal of the season last week, but is he really at the peak of his powers just yet?
Tactically astute coach
Leonardo Jardim is a coach Mauricio Pochettino won’t love coming up against. He’s a coach with a great tactical understanding and one who is good at finding a detail about his opponents he can exploit.
Against PSG this season, his team played without the ball and made life difficult for the champions before breaking quickly. He switched to a back three (or a back five, really) to add a solidity in the middle and allow his side to close down the flanks and stop the full-backs overlapping.
Against Villarreal, he understood the Yellow Submarine’s desire to play on the counter-attack, yet Monaco forced the Spaniards to play with the ball for the most part and they simply couldn’t break down Monaco’s defence.
Early-season play-off was a Godsend!
That playoff was probably the best thing that could have happened to Monaco. Their entire pre-season was gearing up to be ready for that tie, and that seems to have really helped.
It wasn’t just any old European play-off - not like Manchester City taking on Steaua Bucharest, for example. Playing Villarreal is tough, and Monaco were definitely up to the task.
Gearing up for a game like that gave them the momentum to start their season well, too, and from that they’ve gained in confidence.
This is a team who are already up and running in their season, whilst Spurs are only beginning to pick up the pace. It’s very possible they get caught cold by a young side who, after some big wins already this season, will believe they can beat anyone.