After spending heavily in the summer transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur welcome newly promoted Aston Villa to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as they look to kick-start their title challenge.
This game marks Villa’s top flight return since relegation in 2016 whilst Tottenham enter this season looking to build on after two strong but stable seasons.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesTottenham will be without Ryan Sessegnon and Dele Alli who are both recovering from hamstring injuries.
Son Heung-min and Juan Foyth are both absent as they serve the second of a domestic three match ban picked up at the end of last season, although Foyth is also carrying an ankle injury.
Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama are both available after recovering from respective medical and knee issues, whilst Ben Davies is back in training but unlikely to feature after having groin surgery.
Pochettino could hand Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele their competitive debuts after the pair signed this summer alongside the injured Sessegnon.
Aston Villa have a full squad available for selection apart from James Chester, who is ruled out with a hamstring injury.
Matt Targett, Ezri Konsa, Doulas Luiz and Tom Heaton are amongst several Villa signings who could be handed their debut by Smith.
Form
Tottenham lost two of their five pre-season friendlies but won both matches en route to lifting the Audi Cup, whilst managing just one clean sheet which came against Real Madrid.
Aston Villa meanwhile come into this game off the back of an unbeaten pre-season in which they won all six friendlies, with John McGinn their best scorer after netting three goals.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham have lost just one of their last 17 meetings with Aston Villa in all competitions (W13, D3, L1).
- Harry Kane has netted three of Tottenham’s last five goals against Villa.
- This is Dean Smith first Premier League game as a manager.
- Tottenham are unbeaten in their last three opening league fixtures (W2, D1) since losing 1-0 at Manchester United in 2015.
- Aston Villa have won their last three opening Premier League fixtures of which all three were away to Arsenal (2013), Stoke (2014) and Bournemouth (2015) respectively.
Prediction
After a hectic summer of spending for both clubs, this could be an interesting game because we will see whether either side have made the best step forward from last season.
Villa however will need time to gel so a draw would be a great result for them but I reckon that Spurs have made that step up and will have too much for the Villains to handle
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Aston Villa
Result: Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Aston Villa
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