Pape Matar Sarr was among the Tottenham players called up for international duty this November. While most of Spurs\u2019 stars impressed for their national teams \u2014 including Guglielmo Vicario, who earned his first start for Italy and kept a clean sheet against Moldova in their latest World Cup Qualifier \u2014 Sarr\u2019s situation has taken an unfortunate turn.<\/p>\n
Thomas Frank is hoping his squad returns unscathed, but Sarr may not offer that comfort. The midfielder is now a potential doubt for the North London Derby against Arsenal on 23 November at the Emirates Stadium, joining a growing list of players whose availability is uncertain.<\/p>\n
Tottenham already have 12 players sidelined, and Sarr could become the 13th. At one stage in November, Frank had just 14 senior players available. Sarr\u2019s concern comes after he was taken off during Senegal\u2019s friendly with Brazil in the 49th minute. He went down following a challenge from Manchester United\u2019s Matheus Cunha and was replaced by Bayern Munich forward and Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson.<\/p>\n
His fitness for the Arsenal clash remains unclear, and his absence would be another major setback as Tottenham\u2019s injury problems continue to mount. Lucas Bergvall has also returned early from Sweden\u2019s camp after suffering a setback in his concussion recovery from the defeat to Chelsea earlier this month.<\/p>\n
With Arsenal currently leading the Premier League, going into the derby without both Bergvall and Sarr could be damaging. Sarr has contributed two goals and two assists in the league so far, boasts a 57% dribble success rate, completes 84% of his passes, and averages 3.1 ball recoveries and 1.5 clearances per game, according to Sofascore.<\/p>\n
Their potential absence may force Frank to field Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur together in a defensive double pivot \u2014 a combination he previously abandoned due to poor performances. Without their key midfielders, Tottenham could be heading toward a difficult outcome at the Emirates on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pape Matar Sarr was among the Tottenham players called up for international duty this November. While most of Spurs\u2019 stars impressed for their national teams \u2014 including Guglielmo Vicario, who earned his first start for Italy and kept a clean sheet against Moldova in their latest World Cup Qualifier \u2014 Sarr\u2019s situation has taken an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Frank-Arteta-750x422-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54606,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54604\/revisions\/54606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}