Antonio Conte won the war of north London last season, pipping the Gunners into fourth place with just two games remaining. Mikel Arteta had led the race for much of the season. Still, he ultimately lost out with several serious injuries hampering the team's competitiveness during the run-in.
In preparation for the new Premier League season, the pair have again clashed in their style for handling surplus players. Spurs have travelled to Seoul in South Korea whilst Arsenal are due to fly to Florida today to take part in a US tour.
Spurs released the list of players that would be travelling with Conte to Asia, and there were a number of senior absentees. Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Winks, Giovanni Lo Celso and Sergio Reguilon have all been left out.
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Perhaps the latter is the most surprising, although the arrival of Ivan Perisic has suggested the Croatian will take over the starting role in the left wing-back position. Ryan Sessegnon began to start more than the Spaniard, and now Reguilon looks the third choice and perhaps could leave.
Ndombele, Lo Celso and Winks are all likely departures this summer. Antonio Conte has little-to-no plan on their inclusion next season.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have adopted a different approach. Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Hector Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson all travelled and played in Germany against Nurnberg. All have their futures unassured and could leave.
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that the club have asked Lucas Torreira to join up with the group for the tour of the United States, later confirmed by the club's official announcement. Despite the Uruguayan's very public desire to leave, Arteta is approaching his surplus players in the complete opposite fashion to Conte.
The reasons behind it will be multifaceted, but one of the primary explanations is to ensure togetherness and readiness in case they do not leave the club. Arteta will want them part of the group as much as possible.
Even Leno, who looks close to a switch to Fulham looking, has travelled. The price tag has been of some discussion which brings the second reasoning behind Arteta's decision.
Minutes on tour will be available to watch via any interested parties. The tour not only becomes a chance to get the player's match fit and work on tactics but also advertise potential sales assets to any suitors.
Arsenal need to change their reputation in the market regarding sales and drastically. Players like Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi ended up leaving for little to even zero transfer fees as they weren't played. Perhaps this is Arteta learning from this and trying to showcase available talent to boost the financial income from any sale this summer.
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