Tottenham welcome Marseille to north London on Wednesday night to kick off their Champions League campaign.
Antonio Conte has been knocked out at the group stage in three of his last four appearances in the competition, while Spurs have reached the knockouts in four of their five forays.
Marseille head to England full of optimism after a fast start under new coach Igor Tudor, but Tottenham will be confident of their chances of opening with a win.
Here’s how they could line up.
GK: Hugo Lloris – Spurs’ club captain is now into his 11th year in north London, though has only been drawn to face sides from his native France on four previous occasions.
CB: Cristian Romero – Made his return from injury at the weekend. Picked up an early booking and was largely solid from there on in, though let Aleksandar Mitrovic cut inside for Fulham’s consolation.
CB: Eric Dier – Conte has repeatedly insisted that he believes Dier is a leading centre-back. He is by no means flawless, but an England recall is surely in sight.
CB: Ben Davies – UEFA have now changed their rules so that Davies counts as a homegrown player via national association – they previously insisted that Swansea were strictly from a Welsh federation, even though they play in the English league system.
RM: Emerson Royal – Matt Doherty and Djed Spence have hardly had a sniff this season, though it hasn’t been for the want of trying from Emerson judging by his sub-optimal attacking displays.
CM: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – Roundly criticised for his performance last Wednesday against West Ham before putting in a top display at home to Fulham, scoring his second goal of the season.
CM: Rodrigo Bentancur – Provides so much technique and composure that Tottenham missed against West Ham, similarly providing a positive performance at the weekend.
LM: Ivan Perisic – Ryan Sessegnon was excellent last time out, but Perisic is a class above and should return to the XI.
RF: Dejan Kulusevski – The ginger Swede will know he has real competition for his place after Richarlison’s excellent start to life at Tottenham.
CF: Harry Kane – Already has five goals this season but it still feels like Kane is waiting to kick into gear.
LF: Son Heung-min – Came close to breaking his duck on Saturday. A goal surely can’t be far away for the South Korean.
