Lewis Holtby believes his former club will provide an ideal test for us as we look to carry our pre-season momentum into the new season.
Victory against German side Schalke at White Hart Lane on Saturday would see us complete our summer campaign unbeaten and give us the perfect springboard heading into our Premier League opener at West Ham.
Midfielder Lewis, who has featured in all four of our warm-up matches to date – scoring against Seattle Sounders and Celtic, joined us from the Bundesliga side in January, 2013.
And while he knows all about the threats his former team-mates will pose this weekend, he’s also acutely aware of the talents of some of Schalke’s more recent acquisitions.
“They’ve got a very good team,” warned the 23-year-old. “They’ve got some brilliant new signings – Sidney Sam and Eric Choupo-Moting, two players who are very skilful – and they’ve got good players all around the team with the likes of Julian Draxler and Benedikt Howedes, who comes back as a World Cup winner. It’s going to be a very good test for us before the kick-off in the Premier League.”
With all four of our pre-season matches to date having taken place overseas, Saturday represents our first home game since the end of last season. Lewis for one is looking forward to being back on familiar territory.
“It’s always a brilliant occasion when you play at home for the first time after the summer,” Lewis added. “Obviously we’re playing against my old team, so it’s a great thing for me personally and I hope we can show something on the pitch and give something back to the fans.”