Manchester United are starting to feel their groove now. Rumors of their demise have been quite exaggerated. They were middling squarely in mid-table for awhile, but now they’re in 6th place, and still with plenty of time to get back to the coveted top four. As Manchester United are set to take on the Spurs, both teams have 34 points, and a body of work that reads 10-4-5. United of course will enter this match without striker Robin van Persie, among the many issues they’ve dealt with this season.
Of course, there are just a key January transfer window acquisition away from being potentially defending their league title. Especially if they make a couple good midfielder acquisitions.
Tottenham Hotspur, colloquially known as the Spurs, who currently sit seventh in the Premier League table, level with Manchester United, and three points off fourth position, are one of just two sides to advance to the Round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League with a perfect 100% record. The North London side, who have won the FA Cup eight times and the UEFA Cup twice, currently have a roster that boasts U.S. Men’s National Team legend Brad Friedel, English internationals Jermain Defoe, Andros Townsend and Kyle Walker, Brazilian internationals Paulinho and Sandro. Tottenham Hotspur also boasts of Spanish international striker Roberto Soldado and French international captain Hugo Lloris.
For our Manchester United versus Tottenham Hotspur preview we turn it over to Sports Matrix, they do really fine work. An excerpt:
United are starting to find some form having won their last 6 games on the trot. Spurs have replaced Andre Villas-Boas with Tim Sherwood and are also finding some form now, unbeaten in the league since Sherwood took over.
Using the stats at our disposal, we took a look at the game at White Hart Lane to try give us a better indication of what we can expect when these two sides meet again. The basic stats showed that United had the majority of the live ball possession (56%) whereas Spurs had more shots on goal and shots on target than United.
Tottenham Hotspur |
Manchester United |
|
Goals |
2 |
2 |
Shots on Goal |
10 |
9 |
Shots on Target |
5 |
2 |
We found it particularly interesting that despite having the majority of possession, United were unable to turn this into shots on goal and vice versa, with not as much possession, Spurs were able to have more shots on goal and more than double the shots on target than United.
To read the whole preview go here
my prediction: Manchester United 2, Spurs 1
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan