On Sunday, the Premier League will see two of its top 4 contenders go head to head at the country’s national stadium. Mauricio Pochettino’s fluid Tottenham side will welcome an inconsistent Liverpool side to Wembley Stadium.
Tottenham will be hoping they can build on their first home win of the season against Bournemouth while Liverpool will be trying to shake off their stalemate against Manchester United last week. Either way, both teams will be looking to secure all three points.
Here’s a match preview for Tottenham vs Liverpool
Referee: Andrew Marriner
TEAM NEWS:
Tottenham:
- Danny Rose is set to make his first start in 9 months. The left-back came on as a substitute at the Bernabéu and is now a 100% fit.
- Dele Alli is now legible for selection after fully serving his suspension.
- Ben Davies has recovered from an illness.
- Mousa Dembele is still out with a hip injury.
- Victor Wanyama has not recovered from a knee problem.
- Erik Lamela will also remain on the sidelines for the foreseeable future.
Liverpool:
- Simon Mignolet is set to return to the starting XI.
- Adam Lallana is out with a hamstring injury and set to return on the 18th of November.
- Nathaniel Clyne is still out indefinitely.
- Sadio Mané is 4 weeks away from full fitness.
KEY STATISTICS:
- In their last 4 away games against Tottenham, Liverpool are unbeaten.
- Mauricio Pochettino has failed to beat Liverpool in the past seven times he’s faced them.
- Liverpool have only won 40% of the games Sadio Mané has not started since the start of the 2016/17 season.
- There have been 140 goals scored between Liverpool and Tottenham in their league history.
- Tottenham Hotspurs was Jurgen Klopp’s first opponent as Liverpool manager, back on the 17th of October 2015.
Here are the predicted line-ups.
Tottenham are set to maintain their fluid 3-4-3 system that relies on width and midfield dominance. Liverpool will in response set up in an offensive 4-3-3, where they’ll seek to gegenpress Spurs’ on the ball domination. Both systems like to operate in wide areas, and the tracking back by wingers will be a key tactical clash.
Prediction: Tottenham 2-2 Liverpool
This won’t be the average tight game we usually see between big teams; there’ll be goals in this one. These are two teams who don’t know how settle for bore draws; they pride themselves on attacking play. They’re also two teams that like to high press, and it’ll be interesting to see who executes the off the ball tactic better.
If this were at the formidable White Hart Lane, a Tottenham win would be highly favoured. Seeing as they’re the team to have collected the most points since 2015, but at Wembley Stadium they’re a different proposition.
The 1-0 win they scraped through last week against Bournemouth was far from convincing, and Liverpool will offer a more difficult challenge to defend against. Liverpool, on the other hand, are in faltering form as their inconsistency continues to speak volumes. The Reds have only won 2 games in their last 6 games, putting Klopp under increasing amounts of pressure & scrutiny.
