Southampton FC caretaker manager Kelvin Davis has a very tough assignment for his first game in charge. He’ll face a fifth place Tottenham Hotspur side that is about as fit as they have been all season. And when the Saints go in to Tottenham lately, it has not gone well for them.
Spurs have claimed victories in eight of the last 10 home matches against the south coast club, with the only losses coming in September of 2003 and May of 2016. In looking at the first team that Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino could select for this match, it’s somewhat straight-forward with few changes expected.
Toby Alderweireld was rested in the north London derby loss to Arsenal so expect him to come back into the starting XI.
He’ll take the place of the suspended Jan Vertonghen, who was sent off at the Emirates on the weekend.
The Bank Tottenham Hotspur FC Starting XI Prediction 4-2-3-1
Striker: Harry Kane
Attacking midfield: Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Lucas Moura
Defensive-midfield: Harry Winks, Eric Dier
Back line: Danny Rose, Serge Aurier, Toby Alderweireld, Juan Foyth
Goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris
Southampton FC vs Tottenham Hotspur FYIs
Kick-off: 8pm (BST), Wednesday December 5th, Wembley Stadium, London
Injury, Unavailability Report: go to this link
Google Win Probability: Tottenham Hotspur 70%, Draw 19%, Southampton 11%
Odds via Paddy Power: Tottenham 4/11, Draw 7/2, Southampton 15/2
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 3, Saints 1
Feel free to post your own Spurs and/or Saints starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be. Enjoy the match everybody!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.