Writer Rob Guest discussing football. London has projected Ange Postecoglou’s starting lineup for Tottenham’s matchup with Aston Villa on Sunday.
Many of Postecoglou’s regular first-team players will be sidelined due to injuries or suspensions. Having already suffered two straight losses before this match, he will have to field a makeshift squad in an attempt to halt Tottenham’s losing streak.
Cristian Romero (football. London) is currently serving a three-match suspension for tackling Enzo Fernandez against Chelsea. Additionally out due to injury, Yves Bissouma received his fifth yellow card of the year against Wolves.
Due to their injuries against the Blues, Micky van de Ven and James Maddison will both likely miss a sizable amount of time.
Football. Alasdair Gold of London recently dashed supporters’ hopes following the Dutchman’s encouraging Instagram post by saying that the recuperation time has not changed.
Bentancur to start, Emerson on the bench
Guest, writing in his column for Football. London has predicted Spurs’ starting line-up for the Aston Villa clash. In goal, expectedly he named Guglielmo Vicario despite the Italian being down with a bout of flu and missing out on international duty.
Guest expects Pedro Porro, Eric Dier, Ben Davies and Destiny Udogie to be the back four. Udogie was left out of the national team as a precaution but could return to start against Unai Emery’s side.
In midfield, Guest expects Rodrigo Bentancur to be in line for his first start of the season. The Uruguayan midfielder has made a successful return from injury and has made cameo appearances off the bench.
Pape Matar Sarr and Giovani Lo Celso have been named the other two midfielders to accompany Bentancur.
There are no surprises in attack though, with Dejan Kulusevski taking the right wing, Brennan Johnson taking the left wing and captain Son Heung-min leading the line like he so successfully has, throughout the campaign.
Spurs Web Opinion
We think Ange Postecoglou might decide to go with someone like Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in midfield over Giovani Lo Celso. That said, if we want to replace Maddison’s creativity at least to an extent, then there is no better option than Lo Celso.
We also need to be careful with Bentancur. The Uruguayan is returning from a long-term injury and we must not rush him back into action unless he is ready to start. It will also be interesting to keep an eye out on Vicario and Udogie as both of them have had fitness/illness issues.
