Tottenham Hotspur welcome Leeds United to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the first Saturday Lunchtime Football of 2021.
Victory could put Tottenham into the top four whilst Leeds could go tenth with a win if West Ham lose at Everton on Friday evening.
Team News
Lucas Moura and Carlos Vinicius are set to feature for Tottenham after recovering from knocks which would of kept them out of Wednesday’s clash against Fulham, although the game was eventually postponed due to a Coronavirus outbreak amongst the Cottagers.
Gareth Bale (calf) and Giovani Lo Celso (thigh) remain ruled out.
Leeds could be without Mateusz Klich after he suffered a thigh injury during Tuesday’s win at West Brom.
Liam Cooper (abdominal) could however return but Gaetano Berardi, Robin Koch (both knee), Adam Forshaw (hip) and Diego Llorente (groin) remain sidelined indefinitely.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham are unbeaten in their last five league meetings against Leeds (W4, D1).
- Leeds are visiting the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time but have drawn just one of their last seven league trips to Spurs (W3, D1, L3).
- Spurs have kept just two clean sheets in their 14 previous Premier League meetings against Leeds.
- In 24 previous Premier League meetings, neither team have been awarded a penalty.
- No Spaniard has hit the woodwork more times in the Premier League this season than Leeds’ Rodrigo, who found the posts and bar on four separate occasions.
Prediction
After delivering a strong performance on Sunday against Wolves minus decent finishing, Tottenham will certainly be up for this match following their midweek postponement but their finishing will need to improve considerably to beat this Leeds team who have found their stride again.
Speaking of the visitors, Leeds were just brilliant at West Brom with fast flowing attacks and clinical finishing which the Baggies struggled with, although their defending lapsed at moments despite quick recoveries so Spurs should look to maximise and punish those mistakes when they appear.
If they don’t then this could certainly become a scrappy encounter with Tottenham favouring their counter-attacking and letting Leeds come at them, which makes me think that a draw could be likely here given the contrasting performances of both teams on the pitch lately.
Prediction: Tottenham 1-1 Leeds
Result: Tottenham 3-0 Leeds
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