Tottenham Hotspur entertain Liverpool in a festive encounter between two teams battling for European qualification.
Victory could lift Tottenham as high as ninth for at least a few hours, whilst Liverpool could go fourth with a win if Chelsea and Sunderland both lose elsewhere.
Team News
Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 3-0 loss at Nottingham Forest.
Radu Dragusin (ACL), Kota Taki (foot), Destiny Udogie (hamstring), James Maddison (ACL), Dejan Kulusevski (knee) and Dominic Solanke (ankle) are still ruled out.
Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma are both away at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal and Mali respectively.
Liverpool will be without Mohamed Salah because he is away on international duty for Egypt at Africa Cup of Nations.
Conor Bradley is back from suspension whilst Dominik Szoboszlai (ankle) faces a late fitness check.
Joe Gomez however is unlikely to feature after he suffered a hamstring injury in their 2-0 win at home to Brighton.
Wataru Endo (ankle), Cody Gakpo (muscle), Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring) and Giovanni Leoni (ACL) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Tottenham host Liverpool at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday 20 December at 5:30pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham have won just one of their last 15 league meetings against Liverpool (W1, D3, L11).
- Liverpool have lost just one of their last seven league trips to Tottenham (W5, D1, L1).
- Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister scored in both league clashes against Tottenham last season, as did the absent Salah (3) and ex player – Luis Diaz (3)
- No Tottenham player this season has played more successful short passes than Mickey van de Ven (747).
- Liverpool are have won one of four away trips to London-based opposition this season (W1, L3).
Prediction
After their defensive shambles at Forest complete with a toothless attacking display, Tottenham now need to step up their game and produce a more sharper performance if want a rare win over Liverpool – starting with a resiliently robust defence and clinical attack.
Liverpool meanwhile are well prepared to cope with Salah’s absence after he was dropped from the starting line-ups in recent weeks, so I expect it to be business as usual if they can deliver another clinical performance which saw off Brighton despite having to defend for much of the second half.
Tottenham though won’t make this easy if they turn up with the right attitude as we have seen this season against fellow big-name opposition, but I do think that the Reds will comfortably deal with them if can get on the front foot early.
Prediction: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool
Result: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool
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