Emerson and Son bromance
Emerson Royal and Son Heung-min have built up quite a friendship since the former sealed a move to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium one year ago. While it's clear to see that all at Tottenham get on with the club's No.7, Emerson and Son are often seen laughing and joking when together.
Working inside at Hotspur Way to begin with before heading out on to the training pitch, Emerson was quite keen to show off his new trim ahead of the new campaign. Keen to tell the camera that he looks 'handsome' after his fresh cut, he then headed straight over to Son who was sat on an exercise bike.
Showing his teammate his fresh look, the South Korean was intent on touching Emerson's hair but the defender was having none of it, which resulted in him shouting 'no don't touch, bro, please' at Son. Don't touch Emerson's hair!
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on transfers, Djed Spence, Skipp, Bissouma and Perisic fitness
Team news hint
The training video released on the club's YouTube channel may have possibly dropped a hint over Antonio Conte's Tottenham team selection vs Southampton. With the players splitting into two separate groups to take part in a passing drill, the ten players wearing orange bibs could well indicate his starters on Saturday afternoon.
Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Clement Lenglet, Emerson, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ryan Sessegnon, Dejan Kulusevski, Harry Kane and Son were those in orange bibs, which is near enough Conte's Spurs XI from the run-in barring new signing Lenglet. There did appear to be some order to the two team selections rather than just a random allocation of the 21 players involved.
Matt Doherty, Djed Spence, Davinson Sanchez, Ben Davies, Japhet Tanganga, Ivan Perisic, Harvey White, Pape Matar Sarr, Bryan Gil, Richarlison and Lucas Moura were the 11 to not wear bibs for the drill. Potentially looking like Conte's starting XI and then the players who may have to settle for a place on the bench, it will become clear if it was indeed the case at 2pm on Saturday when the team news is officially announced.
Missing player
There did not appear to be any sign of new signing Yves Bissouma in the training drill at Hotspur Way. football.london reported on Wednesday that the Mali international is a doubt for the match after picking up a slight hamstring tweak last Saturday against Roma.
Wearing an ice pack on the injury following the match, Conte did indicate at his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon that they will have to check his physical condition before deciding on their 20-man squad for Southampton.
"In this moment, we have only one player that I'm sure will miss against Southampton which is Oliver Skipp," he explained. "Bissouma we have another day to check very well his physical condition. Nothing serious but I don't want to take any risks for the next games, but tomorrow we have another training session to make an evaluation about the team. The other players are all available."
Bissouma may well have been working away from the group of players as he looks to put himself in the best possible position for selection this coming weekend.
Competitive nature
What the passing drill in training did highlight is the competitive nature in the Tottenham squad. Having to pass the ball around a circle with the player then taking up the position the player they passed to was in, those involved had to do it at speed as the two teams went head-to-head.
Appearing to be just a nice drill to warm up with at first, it then got rather competitive as they tried to beat each other. Lucas and Emerson, who were on separate teams, could be heard debating which team came out on top, before the former could be later heard shouting 'go down' to those in orange as they had to do a number of press-ups for coming second.
The players did appear to be having a good time and the competitive nature was there for all to see.
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