Tottenham Hotspur vs Leicester City: Predicted XI, injury news, suspension lists and more | Premier League 2019/20
The first of Saturday’s Premier League fixtures sees a clash of Champions League hopefuls, as top-four perennials Tottenham Hotspur visit 2015/16’s unlikely champions, Leicester City.
Coming into 2019/20, Leicester were the team most tipped to attempt to break into the ‘big six’ cartel as new boss Brendan Rodgers seemed to be putting a dangerous team together, but despite going unbeaten for the first 4 games of the season, they were beaten relatively comfortably by Manchester United last weekend.
Tottenham meanwhile have had an up-and-down start to the season, with two wins, two draws, and a disappointing loss to Newcastle United. To some fans though, last weekend’s 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace represented a turning point in their season.
For Tottenham, then, this is the chance to reaffirm their position as the closest challengers to the dominance of Manchester City and Liverpool. For Leicester, it’s a chance to prove that they really do have a hope of breaking into the top six this season.
Injury concerns
Leicester will be lucky enough to be able to call upon a fully fit squad for the match this weekend, barring any late injuries.
Tottenham, on the other hand, are still suffering from some injury issues. Defender Juan Foyth remains sidelined with the ankle injury he picked up during pre-season, while new midfielder Giovani Lo Celso was injured during international duty with Argentina. His hip injury is expected to sideline him deep into October.
Young left-back Ryan Sessegnon meanwhile remains unavailable due to a reoccurring hamstring injury, despite hopes that he’d be fit and ready by now.
Suspension lists
Neither side have any suspensions to worry about right now, although Tottenham’s Harry Winks would do well to avoid a yellow card; he’s already picked up three bookings in his last three Premier League appearances.
Team news and probable lineups
Brendan Rodgers has preferred a 4-1-4-1 line-up for the majority of this season’s games, particularly in their trickier-sounding fixtures. The use of this formation paid dividends in their 3-1 win over Bournemouth, and also in their dominant second-half performance against Chelsea.
Given Tottenham’s attacking talents I’d expect Rodgers to deploy the tough-tackling Hamza Choudhury as part of his midfield four; Choudhury has the ability to drop deep and help out Wilfred Ndidi in the holding midfield role, hopefully allowing more space and time for the likes of James Maddison and Youri Tielemans to get on the ball.
Given his somewhat poor showing against Manchester United I’d expect Demarai Gray to be benched in favour of youngster Harvey Barnes, while the key man for the Foxes remains Jamie Vardy; if Leicester can catch Tottenham with a quick break then all the better for the fleet-footed striker.
Tottenham have switched formation a couple of times this season already in order to work around some injury issues as well as large question marks around the future of players like Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen. With the transfer window now closed, though, Mauricio Pochettino’s team feel a little more settled again.
Given the success Spurs had against Crystal Palace I’d expect them to line up in a similar fashion; a four-man defence, with Harry Winks playing deep alongside Tanguy Ndombele, who will likely replace Moussa Sissoko.
In front of them, Eriksen will most likely be the deepest-lying midfielder, with Harry Kane spearheading an attack that will also probably comprise of Heung Min Son and Erik Lamela, who are likely to be preferred over Dele Alli and Lucas Moura.
Tottenham’s width should come from their full-backs – possibly the resurgent Serge Aurier, who was missed in this Wednesday’s Champions League draw with Olympiacos, alongside Danny Rose at left-back.
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