Exciting signs for Tottenham as January arrivals already show worth to Ange Postecoglou | OneFootball

Early days but Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso look capable of forcing their way into Spurs’ first-choice XI

Your matchday briefing on Tottenham, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick

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It said plenty about the scale of Tottenham's winter selection crisis that the squad for Sunday's scrappy 1-0 win over Manchester United appeared to be in a refreshingly robust state.

Five players returned from injury, with goalscorer James Maddison and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario starting and starring, and for the first time since early November, there were no untested academy players making up the numbers on Ange Postecoglou's bench.

And yet Spurs were still without their two senior centre-forwards, Dominic Solanke and Richarlison, and three of their four established centre-backs, with Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Radu Dragusin also missing.

In a regular season, the absence of five senior players across two key positions would have been a major concern but, as it was, Postecoglou must have felt like a starving man who had suddenly been presented with a lavish feast.

It helped that Spurs' options at centre-half and up front have been boosted by January signings Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel both making encouraging starts to life at the club.

Danso has seemingly not needed any meaningful adjustment period since arriving on loan from Lens the day before the transfer deadline, likely aided by the Austrian living in the UK from the age of six and spending the 2019-20 season on loan at Southampton.

Kevin Danso has wasted little time in settling in at Tottenham

Nick Potts/PA Wire

Danso, who will join Spurs permanently for £21million in the summer, was probably the best of a bad bunch of visiting players on his debut, the 4-0 defeat at Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, and followed it up with another solid display in difficult circumstances as Postecoglou's side crashed out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.

Crucially, the 26-year-old looks a good fit for the Australian's prescriptive approach - more so, at this stage, than Dragusin, who is out for the rest of the season after surgery on a torn cruciate ligament - because he is comfortable playing in a high line, appears composed on the ball and is happy to occasionally dribble out of defence.

Danso earned a warm ovation after being replaced on 78 minutes with a knock against United, shortly after he had demonstrated his impressive covering pace to race back and dispossess Rasmus Hojlund, and overall he looks a smart signing, capable of growing into an important player for Spurs.

With Postecoglou hopeful that Romero and Van de Ven will be fit by mid-March at the latest, Danso should have further opportunities in the next two to three weeks to bed-in to the team and potentially leave the manager with a difficult decision to make down the line.

Tel has also made a bright start in London, even if the 19-year-old understandably looks more raw than Danso.

Mathys Tel scored his first goal for the club against Villa Park

Action Images via Reuters

The on-loan Bayern Munich forward was thrust into action prematurely by Richarlison's injury at Anfield, failing to make much of an impression in the second half, and was similarly quiet until switching to central striker towards the end of the match at Villa Park.

A well-taken stoppage-time goal - a predatory first-time finish from Dejan Kulusevski's cross - demonstrated his poaching instincts and he was rewarded with a start through the middle against United.

The teenager finished the game with no fewer than seven shots, the best of them a fierce left-footed drive from Heung-min Son's cross which drew a smart save from Andre Onana in the United goal.

Tel's hold up play appears to need work if he is to make it as a Premier League front man but he was lively and involved on his top-flight bow, suggesting he has the capacity to make a real impact once he has adjusted more fully to his new surroundings.

When Solanke is fit again, as the club hope he will be in a couple of weeks, Tel may be better suited to returning to the left wing in the short-term but it is already easy to see why Postecoglou is so excited about the Frenchman, who is expected to join Spurs permanently in the summer.

It is still early days for both players - too soon, really, to draw any sweeping conclusions - but Danso and Tel are promising additions to Postecoglou's squad, each appearing capable of nailing down a place in the Spurs' best XI in time.