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Alasdair Gold

Rodrigo Bentancur arrives and five things we noticed from Antonio Conte's Spurs training session

The Tottenham Hotspur players have been put through their paces by Antonio Conte ahead of Saturday's FA Cup clash against Brighton.

The Spurs boss gave his players not on international duty - the majority of the squad - six days off last week with the aim of recharging them ahead of a busy second half to the season.

Those fixtures begin on Saturday with the visit of Graham Potter's Brighton side in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Conte has been working his refreshed players hard on the training pitches at Hotspur Way ahead of their return to action this weekend.

Here are five things we noticed from the video shared of the recent session:

Returning players

There were two faces to brighten the day for Spurs fans as Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min were both shown taking a full part in the session.

Romero has been out since getting injured during the November international break while Son suffered an problem in the aftermath of the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg defeat at Chelsea.

So it was a boost for the fans to see Son sprinting and jumping around the Hotspur Way pitches and Romero sliding into challenges.

A new face

Dejan Kulusevski was involved in the session as well as the work in the gym.

It was during the latter where the Swede was shown having a conversation in English with Emerson Royal which appeared to be a classic case of the Brazilian nodding and pretending to understand the new man.

It seems like the 21-year-old new signing from Juventus will not be shy about becoming part of the group.

Spurs' managing director of football Fabio Paratici said: "Dejan is a forward but he runs a lot, he fights a lot, he has a lot of personality, a big personality. He is very ambitious and this is the most important skill that he has."

A bit of skill and the winning team

Kulusevski, who is a big, physical unit, was certainly no slouch in training and clearly has the confidence in possession of the ball that saw him named Serie A's Young Player of the Year in 2020.

At Hotspur Way that was on display with some fast feet during a small and large rondos, with two teams trying to keep the ball.

The Swedish attacker wrong-footed Harry Kane with a quick turn and backheel and, from what we were shown, he was using the ball well under pressure whenever it came his way.

He was constantly calling for the ball and when he got it, he was passing and moving quickly.

Kulusevski then got involved in the celebrations when it was decided that his team, which included a very happy Son and Kane, had won the day in the larger possession game.

Youngsters involved

Spurs decided against loaning some of their development squad players out last month in order to keep them to boost numbers in case of injury problems in the first team squad.

Midfielder Harvey White continues to train with Conte's squad as was defender Malachi Fagan-Walcott in this latest session.

Only 17 still but a first team squad member, Dane Scarlett was also shown taking part as usual, while midfielder Matthew Craig was also involved in the session.

Another new arrival

Tottenham's other new signing Rodrigo Bentancur was not shown in the video but he did arrive at Hotspur Way on Thursday morning.

The 24-year-old Uruguayan's work permit has been sorted and he joined in on training on Thursday afternoon with Conte's squad.

Whether he has arrived in time to play more than a bench role against Brighton on Sunday remains to be seen after his midweek exploits for his national squad, which brought his first ever goal for Uruguay in the win against Venezuela.

“It’s a great club with great players – always competing in all competitions," said the midfielder this week. "I was very happy when I heard about the interest in me and thankfully I’ve joined now.

"It’s a huge pleasure and an honour to be able to represent this shirt. As I said, it’s a brilliant club and a great league that I’ve always liked and now I’m going to have the chance to enjoy it alongside the other great players that we have.

"I think they’ll help me to grow a lot on a footballing level, and obviously we’ll always try to give everything we can to represent the club together."

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