Yves Bissouma has suffered muscle fatigue and communicated his issue to Antonio Conte and his staff a day before the North London derby.
Tottenham returned from the international break with a huge fixture on the horizon; the big derby against Arsenal.
An improvement on last season’s 3-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium would have been nice but it ended up being the exact same scoreline.
Harry Kane cancelled out Thomas Partey’s blockbuster opener but Gabriel Jesus fired Arsenal back in front.
Emerson Royal’s red card ended Tottenham’s hopes before Granit Xhaka wrapped up the 3-1 win for Arsenal with a fine strike.
Yves Bissouma has suffered muscle fatigue
Tottenham were flat throughout and their sloppy passing in the final third left them unable to really hurt Arsenal from open play.
Some wondered whether Antonio Conte would switch from a 3-4-3 to more of a 3-5-2 and attempt to pack the midfield.
That would have been appealing with Dejan Kulusevski out injured but it didn’t happen.
A switch would have likely meant Yves Bissouma coming in for Richarlison and joining Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield.
Instead, summer signing Bissouma only played 20 minutes as he came on for Ivan Perisic in the second half.
There is now some news emerging on Bissouma as Sky Sports reporter Michael Bridge is claiming that Bissouma was suffering from muscle fatigue after international duty.
Bissouma had been away with Mali for the international break and featured for just 27 minutes in one game against Zambia.
Bissouma still returned to North London feeling a little off-colour and told Conte of his issue on Friday having returned from Africa.
That meant Conte just couldn’t pick Bissouma in his starting lineup and had to make do with leaving him on the bench.
Bissouma is still waiting for his Tottenham career to really take off having arrived from Brighton and Hove Albion over the summer.
Breaking into the team ahead of Hojbjerg and Bentancur isn’t easy and he must now hope that these muscle issues don’t cause any more damage as he looks to prove himself to Conte.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
