Well, we can confirm that we’ll get at least three names correct in our Tottenham Hotspur starting XI prediction for the big game tonight against Manchester United. Perhaps no team benefited from the long break as much as Tottenham.
Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Steven Bergwijn and Moussa Sissoko are all back to fitness, and Spurs manager Jose Mourinho has made it official that he’ll select three of them (Kane, Son, Sissoko) will be in the first team Friday night. The Premier League season is back everyone!
“Harry Kane hasn’t played football for more than six months,” Mourinho said at his press availability, which was done via teleconference, today.
“So again, he is working extremely well. I can tell you no problem, he’s going to start the game. Does Harry have 90, 80, 70, 60 minutes, I don’t know. Only the game will tell us that.”
“Is he on the top of his form? We don’t know. It’s not a little training session with our friends from Norwich [a practice match staged last Friday which Spurs lost 2-1] that’s going to tell us the answer. But for him he’s around six months without playing a football match but he works extremely well. He’s an amazing professional and he’s going to start tomorrow.
“The ones that had surgeries — Kane, Sissoko and Son — they’ve recovered and they’re ready to play.”
Mourinho also said, without naming names or specific injuries that a couple players are dealing with some minor knocks and face a late fitness test. Japhet Tanganga has been ruled out due to a stress fracture in his back.
Meanwhile Dele Alli is suspended for this one, due to a tone deaf social media post, which was rather insensitive to what the world is dealing with due to the COVID-19 crisis. Kane has recovered from a hamstring injury that has kept him out since New Year’s Day.
Son has recovered from a broken arm while Sissoko has bounced back from knee ligament damage.
Manchester United at Tottenham Hotspur FYIs
Kickoff: 8:15pm, Friday June 19, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Restarted Season Previews: Tottenham United
Odds: Tottenham 13/8 United 6/4 Draw 5/2
Records: Tottenham 11-10-8 United 12-8-9
Form Guide: Tottenham LDLL United WWWD
United Starting XI Prediction: go to this link Team News for both sides: go to this link
Position in Premier League Table: Tottenham 41 points, 8th United 45 points, 5th
Prediction: United 2, Tottenham 1
United are undefeated since Bruno Fernandes made his Red Devils debut on Feb. 1 (their last defeat of any sort was actually to Burnley way back in mid-January), so this will be a rather difficult test for Mourinho and Spurs right out of the gate.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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