Thomas Frank delivers major updates on nine Tottenham stars in remarkable injury boost before Arsenal

Here’s every single word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said on Friday afternoon ahead of the North London Derby against Arsenal

Thomas Frank had plenty of good news to share in his first North London Derby press conference of the Premier League season on Friday afternoon as Spurs prepare to travel to Arsenal.

Tottenham looked set to make their way to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday with 13 players unavailable but Frank had good news on a number of those players including Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Pape Matar Sarr and whether Randal Kolo Muani can play in a specially-fitted mask after fracturing his jaw in the draw with Manchester United this month.

Currently eight points separate Frank’s men from Sunday’s hosts with the Gunners sitting four points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Spurs currently lie in fifth spot among a group of five teams all on 18 points after the tight opening quarter of the campaign.

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank. Here’s a full transcript from the Dane’s press conference at Hotspur Way.

How’s the squad looking after the international break, with the likes of Sarr, Lucas, Kolo Muani and Dom?

They are good, most of them. Pape trained today. He’s ready, available. Lucas trained today. Ready, available. Kolo Muani, yes. Trained today. Available, of course has a mask [he] needs to play with.

And Dom is not ready yet. I think he also had an article recently where he spoke about it. So we are very, as I said, the same. Very aware that when we put him out there, we want to be absolutely sure, as sure as we can be, that no setback going forward. So I’m comfortable he will soon be ready, but I will not put a timeframe on it.

When you took this job, did you know about the importance of this rivalry? And how excited are you? I know you played them in a friendly, but this is the real one.

Yeah this is the real one. Super excited. Of course before I stepped into the club I knew about the North London derby. But it’s when you’re in it, you sense it and feel that this is important. You feel it from the fans, you feel it from the staff members, the players, the people that have been working here for years. This is the big one.

I always say the next game is the most important game. I always have that. But I’m very, very, very aware there’s two games in a year that’s even more important and this is the first of them. We’re ready, we’re up for it, we’re looking forward to it and we’ll do everything we can to win.

Six years ago, Spurs appointed Jose Mourinho. A few days later, Arsenal appointed Mikel Arteta. He said then trust the process. He was ridiculed a little bit then, but in fairness, they look very, very strong now. Do you envision it taking six years to get the squad you want here, or would you reckon it would be done in less time?

I think it’s a good example of a club that sticks to the process. I know it’s me in charge, but there are so many more people working, but sticking to what we believe in over a longer period. I think six years, it’s very rare you get that long in football.

I also think it’s fair to say that it took probably three seasons for Arteta. So the fourth season, that’s where he competed, now he’s in the seventh season. So he’s really, really ready to compete in his fourth season. So it took over, then two full seasons, then the fourth one.

So I think that’s how you should see it. And then we know the difference between having ultimate success to win something or not is like this, and you need margins. But the process is the most important thing.

Do you have a book coming out soon?

Yeah.

That’s going to be good, isn’t it?

Yeah, I don’t know. People must judge that.

There were interesting quotes about a very busy day you had meeting with Chelsea and Manchester United. Tell us about that day in particular.

I think of course when you decide to make a book, there will be things in it that can be interesting. That’s definitely one of the things that day was a special day. But I think it was the context of what it is that I wanted to do with the next step.

I can’t choose everything, stay long for Brentford, do something else. And then there was this special day with a meeting with two big clubs. That is history. I’m here now, another massive club. I’m very happy here, and I’m looking forward to Sunday.

Spurs currently have a 100 per cent away record, but have only won once at the Emirates in the Premier League, 15 years ago. How do you balance the confidence of the recent form with the reality of that history?

I think I definitely look more into our performance in away form. Very confident in the team going into the game on Sunday. Big respect against a good team. Currently, we can’t run away from that, even though we don’t like it but Arsenal are at the top of the table, by quite a distance.

They’ve been good for a few years, but we need to do everything we can to turn that around. It’s one game on Sunday, one game where I’m convinced that we will compete a lot. I will do everything we can to beat them.

Arsenal currently hold the record for the highest goals scored from set-pieces so far this season. How does that challenge motivate you?

It’s a big challenge. I think we hold the record for the fewest goals conceded from set-pieces. That’s not a bad stat either, but there’s no doubt that one of the battles we need to win in this game is a set-piece battle. Can we win that battle? Then we’re halfway there. They’re strong, we’re strong. That will be a battle in itself.

Then there’s a lot of other battles. The high pressure, the defending, the building up and all that, but the set-pieces will be a battle.

Arsenal’s defence is also super strong. What’s the key to creating chances against a defence that’s been so hard to open up?

They’ve been good. Of course, we trust that we can score goals there. I think it’s also fair to say on the road we’ve been quite good to do that. I think the more we can make them a little bit disorganised, which will be a challenge, the better. That’s what we’ll try to do.

Just to ask you about a trio of defenders, Radu Dragusin played 45 minutes in the under-21s friendly last week, but also Ben Davies and Kota Takai, where are they all at in their fitness goals?

Radu, very happy. He has probably been in that for a couple of weeks now. Full training, full in, everything. With the team, played his first 45 minutes in nine months, something like that, last Wednesday, I think it was. Very happy with that. Trained fully today.

Now he’s definitely getting very close to being able to be selected. Now it’s just a matter of performance and probably just a few more game minutes to be fully available. Kota and Ben both trained with the team today, so that’s also positive.

How far away is Archie Gray?

He trained with the team as well.

So you’re getting to the stage where you’re actually getting bodies back?

Yeah, exactly. Now I need to make difficult decisions.

Brennan Johnson scored a lovely goal on the international break. How important is that for a player like him, a confidence player like most players?

I think every player is a confidence player. Some need it more than others, but everyone needs that confidence. We all know if we are a little bit more confident, it’s easier to turn forward, to play forward, to run forward, to trust yourself. Don’t even think.

It’s just intuitive when you make your decision or your movement. Very happy for him. I think actually Brennan has had some very positive performances in Copenhagen one of them, all the positive things in there, and United, now he comes off the back of a good game for Wales.

You spoke about the United and Chelsea talks on the same day. How different were the Spurs talks you had later on?

In a way they are a little bit similar. You speak to people and present what you would like to bring to the club. So there’s a lot of similarities in that sense.

With the North London derby, the perception is that it’s one of the best derbies in the league, because there’s chaos, drama, red cards. As a manager that hasn’t had one yet and now you’re going to be in the thick of it, what is your perception of the derby before you’ve taken one?

The interesting thing is that probably both Mikel and I would like a little bit more of a controlled game, but it will probably end up absolutely madhouse. Very, very enjoyable to watch for the outside people or fans. I expect a difficult game of course, but a game that can go anywhere.

Everything can happen in that game. In games like that everything also evens out a little bit more because it’s so competitive. The atmosphere in the stadium, it doesn’t matter if we play away or home, is intense. We’re just really looking forward to it. I know we’ll be ready and we’re looking forward to it.

Do you embrace the chaos as a manager or is 0-0 a good result?

Definitely embrace controlled chaos or chaos we like to create if that makes sense, because chaos can also be good. It can also be too disruptive, or too fixed and too stop-start, so we need a bit of chaos and chaos can be transitions, high-pressure and set-piece second phases and all them areas are of course areas we would like to exploit if we can. By the way, we will never go for a 0-0. It maybe will end 0-0 but we will always try to win. Always, always, always.