Tottenham vs Monaco: Three reasons why playing at Wembley will suit Spurs - and three reasons why it won't

Arsenal played their Champions League fixtures at Wembley during the late 1990s but it didn't bode too well for them then - so how will the national stadium affect Tottenham's chances?

Tottenham get used to the feel of the Wembley pitch ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League clash (Getty)

Tottenham will become the first Premier League side since Arsenal to play their Champions League group stage fixtures at the national side's home ground as they step out at Wembley on Wednesday night to face AS Monaco.

With White Hart Lane currently under development as the club sets about cosntructing a new stadium, Spurs will move to north-west London for all their home fixtures in Europe's elite competition.

It didn't bode well for Arsenal when they played their Champions League fixtures there during the late 1990s - but will it similarly undermine Tottenham's European campaign too?

The Independent takes a look at three reasons why Wembley will suit Spurs and three reasons why it won't:

Three reasons why Wembley will benefit Tottenham:

Pitch size

Early on in his Tottenham tenure, Mauricio Pochettino tried to explain Spurs’ faltering home form as being due to their restricted pitch. White Hart Lane has the second-smallest pitch in the Premier League, at just 100 x 67 metres. “Our style means that we need a bigger space to play, because we play a positional game,” Pochettino explained. “It is true that White Hart Lane is a little bit tight, no? It is better for the opponent to play deep.”

At Wembley on Wednesday night, Spurs will finally play on a bigger pitch, 105m x 68m, 6 per cent bigger than White Hart Lane, and much longer. That is a pitch that will allow them to play their natural game. The full-backs will have more space to push into, making the pitch big, giving the creative players more room to pick their passes.

Tottenham's players will be gifted with plenty of space on the Wembley pitch (Getty)

Numbers

White Hart Lane is impressive when it is full but there is no arguing with numbers. Spurs have sold more than 80,000 tickets for the game, a remarkable record, and expect to keep selling them after having some returned from Monaco and more seats made available. As a show of strength from a fan-base it is very impressive.

Whatever it means for noise and atmosphere, the players themselves should draw great strength from seeing twice as many Spurs fans on Wednesday night as they do for a normal home game at White Hart Lane.

Sense of progression

Tottenham have had an upwardly-mobile feel ever since Mauricio Pochettino arrived from Southampton in 2014, a sense that they are getting better all the time. They have reached a Capital One Cup final, mounted a Premier League challenge and now they are playing in the Champions League. The fact that they have done so well that they have moved grounds, from their normal home to the national stadium, only reinforces that. This is a young team with a lot to learn. As Pochettino has already said, their final step this season is in their heads. How better to adjust to the big time, and the biggest stages, than by inhabiting one in London three times this autumn?

Danny Rose in training at Wembley ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League fixture (Getty)

Three reasons why Wembley will not benefit Tottenham:

Unfamiliarity

There is a worrying precedent for Spurs. Arsenal played their Champions League home games at the old Wembley in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons, but failed to qualify from the group stage in either season. They won just two of their six games there, against Panathinaikos and AIK Solna, and Arsene Wenger recently described the experience as a “nightmare” for his team.

“It was a nightmare [for us],” Wenger reflected earlier this year. “In hindsight it was the wrong decision. We decided to go to Wembley, but we didn’t feel at home. The pitch was bigger, the ground was different and for the English players it was something completely unusual. We were used at Highbury, to a tight pitch and unfortunately we were playing against Dynamo Kiev, who were running everywhere on a very big pitch. It was a disadvantage for sure.”

Lost atmosphere

Few places in Europe have the same atmosphere on a big European night as White Hart Lane. That was the evidence of Spurs’ last Champions League campaign, back in 2010-11, as they stormed their way through to the quarter-finals, beating reigning European champions Internazionale along the way. It was one of the greatest nights in Tottenham’s modern history. Wembley is a special place but there is no chance it will have the same feel as White Hart Lane did on those nights. The fans will be in the wrong place, they will be further from the pitch, there will be none of that homely familiarity which is so important to creating something distinct.

Wembley Stadium is known to lack atmosphere on occasion (Getty)

Inspiring the opponents

White Hart Lane is an important place to Tottenham fans but not necessarily to players and supporters from abroad. Wembley is one of the most famous grounds in the game, not just for its old history but also for its two recent Champions League finals. There is little doubt that the players of Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow will be desperately motivated to play and impress there, on one of the biggest stages in European football. Would they be as driven to impress on that small corner of N17 where Spurs usually play, which for all its charms has hosted no World Cup finals and no Champions League finals? Probably not.