Tottenham team news, fresh emerged injuries and possible line-up vs. West Ham; two major changes will be made as £90m duo return to starting XI [Full story link in comment]
Tottenham Hotspur will be hoping to stay hot on the heels of top four rivals Aston Villa with a win over West Ham in midweek. Spurs left it late to sneak past relegation-threatened Luton Town on Saturday afternoon, having initially fallen behind against Rob Edwards’ side. An Issa Kabore own goal, followed by an 86th minute Son Heung-min strike was, however, enough to settle the clash.
That result leaves Spurs fifth in the table following Villa’s win over Wolves on Saturday evening, albeit with a game in hand, and a win on Tuesday night could be enough to draw them level on points with Unai Emery’s men, who play Manchester City on Wednesday.
For their part, West Ham are seventh in the table following a dramatic 4-3 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday lunchtime. The Hammers had, at one stage, led 3-1 on Tyneside, before being pegged back and eventually succumbing to a 90th minute Harvey Barnes winner.
But how will both sides line up in midweek? We’ve taken a closer look at their respective team news and prospective starting XIs below…
Tottenham Team News
Tottenham are actually looking relatively okay on the injury front at present. After a campaign that has, at times, been plagued by notable absences, Ange Postecoglou heads into the new week with a near-full contingent to select his starting XI from. Indeed, Spurs’ only real injury concerns are deputy goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who is still sidelined with a fractured foot; Ryan Sessegnon, who is not expected to play again this season following surgery on his right hamstring; and Manor Solomon, who is set to make his comeback later in the month following a knee procedure.
Micky van de Ven’s return to the bench on Saturday will have many hoping that the Dutchman can force his way back into the heart of defence, while Brennan Johnson could replace Timo Werner out wide.
Tottenham Predicted XI
Guglielmo Vicario; Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie; Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr; Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Brennan Johnson; Son Heung-min.
West Ham Team News
Similarly, West Ham boast a relatively clean bill of health at the present moment in time. The Hammers may only be missing a couple of players at the London Stadium on Tuesday night, with one of those being Edson Alvarez, who will face a further one-game suspension after accumulating 10 yellow cards over the course of the Premier League campaign.
Elsewhere, first choice goalkeeper Alphonse Areola faces continued assessment having suffered an abductor strain during Saturday’s defeat to Newcastle United. There is, however, more promising news regarding defender Nayef Aguerd. The centre-back was touch and go for the recent trip to the North East, but having missed out on David Moyes’ match day squad at the weekend, should be in contention to feature on Tuesday. As explained by the West Ham manager following the international break: ‘We’ve just got question marks over Nayef and Lucas [Paqueta]. They’ve only recently returned, and we’re just keeping an eye on them to see how they are.’
West Ham Predicted XI
Lukasz Fabianski; Vladimír Coufal, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kurt Zouma, Emerson Palmieri; Tomas Soucek, James Ward-Prowse; Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus; Michail Antonio.
