Ange Postecoglou is likely to find himself in a familiar position this weekend: facing Manchester City and Erling Haaland without his first-choice centre-backs.
The Tottenham head coach has described new dad Cristian Romero as "definitely a doubt" for the Etihad after he was replaced at half-time of Argentina's game against Paraguay last week, while Micky van de Ven is still sidelined with the hamstring injury picked up in the Carabao Cup win over City last month.
Van de Ven is training outdoors but not expected to be available until mid-December, likely ruling him out of five or six more games.
At the same stage of last season, Spurs travelled to City without Van de Ven and Romero – both nursing hamstring injuries at the time – and earned a 3-3 draw, Dejan Kulusevski's 90th-minute equaliser rescuing a point for the visitors.
Emerson Royal and Ben Davies filled in at centre-half on a bitterly cold day and emerged with credit, the pair bravely sticking to Postecoglou's game-plan by playing out from the back in the face of City's press.
The hosts, though, twice hit the woodwork, while Haaland was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal. In the final seconds, at 3-3, the striker's pass sent Jack Grealish clear, only for referee Simon Hooper to belatedly blow his whistle for a foul on the Norwegian, incensing City's players and coach Pep Guardiola.
In short, Spurs deserved credit for twice coming from behind, but it could easily have been a different story for Postecoglou's depleted side.
The big question for Spurs and Postecoglou this weekend is whether they are better equipped to cope with City this time around if Romero is unavailable?
Radu Dragusin is likely to partner Davies at centre-half in another acid test for the January signing, who is yet to convince as a Postecoglou player.
Two of Dragusin's best performances for Spurs have been against City: the 2-1 win in the Carabao Cup last-16 on October 30 and the strange 2-0 home defeat in the penultimate game of last season.
Playing against Guardiola's side seems to suit the 23-year-old, who looks more comfortable as a backs-to-the-wall defender than an proactive centre-half – unlike Romero and van de Ven, who both love being on the ball and charging up the pitch.
Without Romero, Dragusin would switch to the right, with Davies on the left, giving Spurs more balance and enabling him to pass forward on his preferred foot.
Dragusin and Davies finished last month's cup win against City after Van de Ven and then Romero were both forced off, which should give the pair confidence, though they were screened by both Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur in the second half – in what was arguably a rare show of pragmatism from Postecoglou.
This presents another question for Postecoglou: should he adapt his approach against City, particularly considering Spurs' historic successes when frustrating Guardiola's side?
Amid the furore around Spurs' defeat to the champions in May, which Postecoglou later described as his "worst experience as a manager", it was almost overlooked that the Australian drastically altered his tactics on the day.
In the absence of a fit centre-forward, Postecoglou ripped up his 4-3-3 system in favour of a striker-less 4-2-2-2, with Pape Matar Sarr pressing as a false nine.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg bolstered the midfield in a rare start, and van de Ven switched to left-back – a role he reprised against City last month.
The result was a Spurs side with the numbers to block off City's attacks and the runners to hurt them on the break – food for thought ahead of this weekend's game.
Bentancur, though, begins a seven-match domestic ban this weekend, while Richarlison and Wilson Odobert are injured, limiting Postecoglou's creative options.
Spurs took a risk when they did not sign a centre-half in the summer (Postecoglou has said Archie Gray, 18, can play there) because it always seemed likely that Romero and van de Ven would be sidelined in tandem at some stage, given the pressures of Postecoglou's football and the schedule.
The meeting with City, who are themselves without key players and on an unprecedented four-game losing streak, feels like a test of Tottenham's understudies and another intriguing measure of their progress under Postecoglou.
Spurs' squad appears deeper than last season and a landmark result at the Etihad would go a long way to proving it.
