Tottenham Hotspur welcome Leeds United to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a huge concluding Super Sunday clash to this weekend’s Premier League action.
Victory would lift Spurs up to seventh in the league whereas Leeds can climb as high as 13th with a win.
Team News
Pierre Emile Hojbjerg is a doubt for Tottenham after a knee injury prevented the midfielder from playing for Denmark in this month’s international window.
Cristian Romero (hamstring) is also considered a doubt but Oliver Skipp (suspension), Bryan Gil (hamstring) and Ryan Sessegnon (fitness) are ruled out.
Leeds could welcome Jamie Shackleton and Junior Firpo back from respective knock and muscle injury.
Joe Gelhardt (knock) is a doubt whilst Luke Ayling (knee) is unlikely to be risked unless fully match fit, as Robin Koch (groin) and Patrick Bamford (ankle) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham have lost just one of their last seven league meetings against Leeds (W5, D1, L1).
- Leeds have won just one of their last five away league visits to Spurs (W1, L4).
- Spurs’ Son Heung-min scored in both meetings against Leeds last season (W1, L1).
- Spurs are yet to score on the counter-attack this season.
- Leeds are one of three clubs including Liverpool and Chelsea to have scored five goals from outside of the box this season.
Prediction
Having only played two matches under Antonio Conte in two different competitions before the international break, it is slightly tricky to predict how Spurs will approach this match yet they were wasteful of chances against Everton last time and defence struggled with the Toffees’ pace.
Conte though has had a fortnight now to work with players like Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Harry Winks who weren’t on international duty, so hopefully we will see some improvement from that particular section of the squad alongside returning players who enjoyed positive international fixtures.
Leeds though do have the energy to trouble Tottenham if they can impose their energetic intensity quickly because they do grow throughout matches, although they wasted numerous chances against a shaky Leicester team two weeks ago in their 1-1 draw.
On that note, this game should be quite interesting because I expect Tottenham to come out fighting and Harry Kane in particular has rediscovered his groove on international duty, yet now needs to transfer that quality to club level.
Leeds though won’t make this easy by any stretch but I fancy Spurs to find a way through by hook or crook, although managing Leeds’ growing intensity will be crucial across 90 minutes.
Prediction: Tottenham 2-1 Leeds
Result Tottenham 2-1 Leeds