Young prospect Archie Gray is clearly someone Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi believes in just as much as the fans do, because even though he has to kind of screw over the midfielder with no real backup right back in the squad for Pedro Porro after the Djed Spence sale to Serie A giants Inter Milan, he made Gray a captain frequently during the preseason and even named him the official "fifth" captain for the 2026/27 Premier League season.
Gray started again at right back on Saturday afternoon against Everton with Porro a late scratch due to fitness concerns, but unlike his first couple of outings in the unnatural position, the England youth international looked quite solid. He defended at a very high level with four combined tackles and interceptions, and he was able to progress the ball better.
The biggest threat to Gray, though, even as he played well at right back vs. the Toffees, isn't himself or even De Zerbi. It's the fact that the player he benched last season for key minutes in the starting 11 under Thomas Frank is suddenly back to playing the absolute best football of his career.
Rodrigo Bentancur is looking even better these days
Rodrigo Bentancur delivered another strong performance for Tottenham Hotspur vs. Everton as they continue to control the pitch with the veteran Uruguayan in the midfield. He is looking tidy in possession, intelligent in defense, and more athletic than ever before; Tottenham fans are remarking that he looks like he did before he tore his ACL. And lately, he looks even better than he did at Juventus when the Bianconeri faithful thought he would be their next great center midfielder.
Tottenham do need a creative No. 10 in their lineup as they seek more goals and scoring chances, so when James Maddison comes back from his injury, the midfield trio of Rodrigo Bentancur, Sandro Tonali, and Mateus Fernandes will be broken up with Fernandes mercifully moving out of the makeshift No. 10 role and into the double pivot with Tonali as was always planned.
But that means Bentancur, who has honestly been outplaying Tonali and even Fernandes, will be bounced out of the lineup. And in terms of backups in rotations, if given the choice, as much as Roberto De Zerbi and Spurs may want to give Archie Gray more minutes, it is hard to justify not playing Bentancur with how brilliant he has been both at the end of last season during the relegation fight and especially to start the current campaign.
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