Tottenham v Villarreal match preview

Thomas Frank allowed himself and his players 24 hours to celebrate their 3-0 win over West Ham on Saturday ahead of a debut in a Champions League technical area that the Tottenham manager expects to be “very exciting”.

“We go again,” Frank told Spurs Play after his side moved third in the Premier League with victory at the London Stadium.

“You never take wins for granted – even though we want to win a lot [of games] – because it hurts so much when you lose.”

Frank described Xavi Simons’s debut as “promising” following the Netherlands midfielder’s £52 million arrival from Leipzig.

Simons reportedly decided to leave the German club because of their failure to reach the Champions League, in which the 22-year-old contributed two goals and two assists in eight appearances in 2023/24.

Europa League holders Spurs return to the competition for the first time since their run to the last 16 in 2022/23, while Villarreal last featured the previous season, losing both legs of their semi-final against Liverpool.

The Yellow Submarine are fifth in Spain and seeking their first win in three matches following their 2-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid on Saturday, when some of manager Marcelino’s tactical decisions after Atleti’s second goal were influenced by their trip to London.

“The game against Tottenham came back to mind,” said Marcelino. “We had to take into account that some players were coming off injuries and others [had been] playing for their national teams.”

The Spaniard has added five recruits during the last month, paying Lyon around £31m for forward Georges Mikautadze and Chelsea £26m for defender Renato Veiga.

Forward Tani Oluwaseyi is a £6.9m signing from Minnesota United, while back-up goalkeeper Arnau Tenas joined for £2.2m from Paris Saint-Germain and winger Manor Solomon is on loan from Spurs for the season.

“We’ll try to get them to adapt as quickly as possible,” Marcelino said. “We know playing a game every three days makes it difficult but it’s no excuse.

“They have to adapt quickly to their teammates, the competition and the objectives. The coaching staff will try to make this happen as quickly as possible.”

Richy is @ChampionsLeague ready 🤩 pic.twitter.com/CSMRdpBnqA

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 15, 2025

Tottenham v Villarreal team news

Defender Radu Dragusin and midfielders James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are out for Tottenham with knee injuries.

Centre-back Kota Takai will miss out with a foot injury and striker Dominic Solanke is a doubt with a similar issue.

Midfielder Yves Bissouma will reportedly not return from injury until next month but on-loan Paris Saint-Germain forward Randal Kolo Muani could make his debut after being an unused substitute against the Hammers.

Forward Richarlison was a substitute and Rodrigo Bentancur was not called from the bench after travelling to South America during the international break.

Villarreal centre-back Willy Kambwala and striker Gerard Moreno have hamstring injuries but Solomon is eligible to play against his parent club.

Forward Ayoze Perez, who scored 22 times in 32 appearances in all competitions last season, returned against Atleti, with Georgia international Mikautadze making his debut.

Nicolas Pepe has scored twice and Tajon Buchanan has three goals so far this season for a side who have only been outscored by Barcelona in their domestic top flight.

Defender Juan Foyth spent four years at Tottenham before joining Villarreal permanently in 2021.