Xavi Simons gets football's ultimate humiliation as Tottenham's £52m summer signing's struggles continue against Chelsea

Xavi Simons hit a new low when he was brought on and later substituted by Thomas Frank during Tottenham's Premier League defeat against Chelsea.

The £52 million summer signing began the match on the bench against their London rivals but was introduced as a concussion substitute after Lucas Bergvall sustained a head injury in the opening minutes.

With Spurs trailing, Simons on a yellow card and struggling to find his rhythm, Frank decided he had seen enough. The Spurs manager replaced the 22-year-old with Wilson Odobert in the 73rd minute.

Simons trudged off, visibly dejected as he watched his side fail to mount a comeback against a team that has now beaten Tottenham in their last five consecutive meetings. Joao Pedro's 34th-minute goal was enough to seal all three points for Enzo Maresca's side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Frank downplayed his substitution after the match, though, claiming he had not started Simons due to managing match fitness reasons.

'There's a reason why we played him on the bench,' he said. 'He played on Wednesday night (in their Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle) and he can't play with that extra freshness, energy. There's not too much into that, that's just the way it is.'

Much like Liverpool’s £116 million signing Florian Wirtz, Simons has struggled to make the leap from the Bundesliga to the Premier League this season. Neither of the 22-year-olds has scored for their respective clubs since arriving in the summer to plenty of fanfare.

The Netherlands midfielder, who had been chased by several European clubs in the summer before settling on Tottenham, had scored 22 goals and assisted 24 others in his 78 appearances for RB Leipzig.

Yet Simons has now played over 500 minutes in all competitions for Spurs and is yet to score. He has registered one assist, on his debut at West Ham when one of his corners was headed in by Pape Matar Sarr.

His new manager has recently called for patience as the youngster adapts to the demands of the English top flight.

'It's a very good comparison,' said Frank, ahead of Spurs' Champions League tie in Monaco last Wednesday.

'Wirtz, also a very good player, just like Xavi coming into a new country, new club, new city, (they) just need to settle.

'We are all getting judged every game, but we also need to see the bigger perspective. I look for glimpses and with Xavi I asked him to arrive more in the box and when I looked back at the (Villa) game, he did.

'Was there a big eye-catching moment? No, but there were glimpses so it's going a little bit in the right direction.'

A product of Barcelona's La Masia academy, Simons moved to PSG in 2019 as a teenager before impressing during a loan spell at PSV in 2022-23.

He went on to spend the next two seasons at Leipzig before becoming the second major transfer from the club to the Premier League after Benjamin Sesko's £74million move to Manchester United.

Signed as a creative playmaker, Simons will be eager to establish himself quickly and justify the club’s investment.

Meanwhile, Tottenham’s defeat to Chelsea leaves them with just three wins in their last 19 Premier League home games with no ever-present team having won fewer home matches over this period.

Their expected goals (xG) of 0.05 against the Blues was the lowest they have recorded in a Premier League match since 2012-13, in what was their 504th game in the competition since that season.

Click here to read article