Tottenham Hotspur welcome Manchester United to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a blockbuster Premier League clash.
Should Brighton fail to beat Liverpool on Saturday afternoon, victory would see Tottenham climb to fourth for at least 23 hours.
Man Utd meanwhile can go as high as fifth with a win.
Team News
Bryan Gil is a doubt for Tottenham after suffering a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win at Burnley.
Ryan Sessegnon (fitness) is still ruled out.
Man Utd will be without Paul Pogba for their next two matches after the French midfielder was red carded in last weekend’s defeat to Liverpool.
Raphael Varane (groin) and Anthony Martial (fitness) face late fitness tests but Amad Diallo (thigh) remains ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham have won just one of their last five meetings against Manchester United (W1, D1, L3).
- Man Utd are unbeaten in two visits to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (W1, D1).
- Spurs’ Son Heung-min netted three goals in both meetings against Man Utd last season (W1, L1).
- Tottenham’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has touched the ball more times than any other Premier League midfielder, having had 780 touches in nine league appearances.
- Utd’s Bruno Fernandes has played more through balls than any other Premier League player this season, having created 11 through balls in nine league appearances.
Prediction
Having produced a disjointed performance at West Ham last Sunday in which the defence were poor at man marking and often outstretched beyond their positions whilst the attack lacked intensity, Spurs will need a huge improvement here although they did make progress in a solid midweek win at Burnley.
Man Utd meanwhile would of had six days come kick-off to mull an atrocious performance in which their defenders were repeatedly torn apart with poor Luke Shaw left exposed to cover the left side of defence alone whilst midfield and attack lacked motivation throughout.
I am therefore dubious about what quality we could expect because both teams have work to do to improve their performances, yet the fact that Utd have had nearly a week to focus on improving their performance makes me think that it would be typical Utd to go from an awful loss to a win.
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Manchester United
Result: Tottenham Hotspur 0-3 Manchester United