Tottenham v Man United Match Preview
Tottenham v Manchester United will open the round of matches in the EPL to be played in-between the 28th /29th December with a 12:00 GMT kick-off time. In their past 6 meetings the side are totally balanced with 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats a piece but there has never been a goalless match.
Spurs have been left without any injury concerns after Ryan Mason appeared unscathed from the bench against Leicester on Boxing Day. It will be interesting to see how Mauricio Pochettino decides to rotate his first choice XI, given the fixture pileup around this time of year. He has an obvious first team now, though, and could look to stick with those trusted players with Ben Davies coming back in for Danny Rose.
Manchester United on the other hand, have a list of injuries that is almost laughable but that it has not affected their form of late at all. Louis van Gaal laughed at the idea of playing so many games in quick succession at this time of year, and even awarded his players a day of rest on Christmas day but will have to decided whether to play Chris Smalling at centre-back after Paddy McNair played there against Newcastle. Angel Di Maria faces a late fitness test while Herrera and Shaw have a chance of returning.
Tottenham have won their last 3 games (each with a 2-1 score line) and are starting to look like they might have found some form. Successive games against United and Chelsea will test their mettle though. United have won 7 of their last 8 games and could put in a similar performance to that which they put in at Arsenal, Southampton and Liverpool (amongst others) when they looked to sit back and hit their opponents on the break very much riding the luck that has been one of their closest allies of late.
Our Probable formations are:
Tottenham (4.2.3.1) Lloris, Walker, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies, Bentaleb, Mason, Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli and Kane.
Manchester United (3.4.1.2) De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Evans, Valencia, Rooney, Carrick, Young, Mata, Falcao and Van Persie.
Some Hot Tips:
There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 10 of Tottenham’s last 11 games in the Premier League.
Man Utd are undefeated in their last 13 away matches against Tottenham in all competitions.
There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 6 of Man Utd’s last 7 games in the Premier League.
Man Utd have scored at least 2 goals in 6 of their last 7 matches in the Premier League.
Tottenham have scored at least 2 goals in their last 3 matches in the Premier League.