It’s difficult to know where to start: In more than 50 years of watching Spurs, we can’t recall a worse performance than the one against Newcastle on Sunday. It’s a sorry state of affairs and a measure of how far the club has fallen over the last few seasons.
If that 6-1 loss proved to be the catalyst for permanent change, it may be more bearable, but we’re not holding our collective breath. With fixtures coming up against Manchester United and Liverpool over the next few days, the worry is that there will be more of the same.
The loss did lead to one predictable change among the coaching staff. Cristian Stellini paid the price, leaving Ryan Mason to step in as the caretaker boss once again.
We’ll try not to dwell on Sunday too much, but it will be tough to avoid that abject performance as we attempt to predict what will happen in Thursday night’s game at home to Erik ten Hag’s United.
Cristian Stellini
Team News
As a side note to that most recent defeat, we’re all waiting to see what happens with Hugo Lloris for Thursday’s game. He didn’t come out for the second period and the official line was that our club captain suffered a muscle injury, although many felt that he was replaced after ‘losing it’ in the dressing room at half time.
Reports on Tuesday morning suggest that this really was a hip injury and that Hugo is likely to be unavailable for the United game. Joining our captain on the sidelines are long term injury victims Rodrigo Bentancur, Emerson Royal and Yves Bissouma.
Elsewhere, after a lengthy period out, there are suggestions that Ryan Sessegnon might just make the matchday squad, while Lucas Moura is available again after serving his three-match suspension.
Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham Hotspur, 19)
Match Odds
Manchester United will now start as favourites to claim all three points, although the match result market remains a fairly tight one. The best odds on the away win currently stand at 16/11 with 10Bet. A win for Spurs is next at 35/19 with VBet while the draw completes this section at 11/4 with Unibet.
United made hard work of their FA Cup semi final win over Brighton on Sunday, eventually winning a protracted penalty shoot out. In the league, Erik ten Hag’s men have picked up ten points from their last six matches.
Tottenham are only just behind with eight points from their last six, but any side would feel that this is a good time to play us.
Side Markets
Harry Kane scored our solitary goal on Sunday, but he will have some competition in player markets moving forward. In the first goalscorer betting for the United game, Harry does start as the favourite at best odds of 4/1 with Unibet, but he’s followed by three United players in Marcus Rashford at 5/1, then Wout Weghorst and Anthony Martial at 7/1 – all with Unibet again.
Elsewhere. Son Heung-Min is listed at 15/2 with Ladbrokes, while other options for Spurs backers include Richarlison at 9/1 with Quinnbet, Arnaut Danjuma at 10/1 with Quinnbet, Dejan Kulusevski at 14/1 with 888Sport and Ivan Perisic at 22/1 with Quinnbet.
In other side bets, Both Teams to Score is quoted for Thursday’s game at best odds of 8/13 with Unibet. If you’d prefer to claim the ‘no’ option on BTTS, you can claim a figure of 16/11 with 10Bet.
The Total Goals section is next and a stake Over the 2.5 line is on offer this time at a top price of 4/6 with Quinnbet. If you want to push that up one notch, Over 3.5 goals is available at 18/11 with VBet. Anyone expecting a much quieter 90 minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday can currently claim a best of 13/10 with VBet again.
Last is our look at some Correct Score options. If you have faith that Spurs can get over the line in this fixture, the 2-1 home win is quoted at 19/2 with Unibet, while the same scoreline in favour of Manchester United can be backed at 9/1 with the same bookmaker. We’ll finish with the 2-2 draw which is quoted at 11/1 with Quinnbet.
Last Season
The Newcastle game at the weekend will effectively see the demise of this section for next season. We don’t want to work through the match previews and be faced with any more reminders of that result than are necessary.
It’s enough that our corresponding fixture against Manchester United from last term was also one to forget. For the record, October 2021’s game ended in a 3-0 home defeat thanks to goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford. The game led to the end of the Nuno Espirito Santo reign at Spurs – he was sacked two days later – and here we are back with the caretaker manager 18 months later.
Verdict
We’ve really no idea what to expect from Thursday night’s game. Neutral observers may suspect that Spurs are a club in freefall and they may well be right. As a result, there will obviously be some heavy interest in backing the away win here.
Anything can happen in a one off game: Injuries could be blamed over the last few weeks, but the defence looked confused and outclassed in that horrendous opening 20 minutes. Can they possibly respond from that very public humiliation?
We’re not expecting a lot and, while we keep saying that we’ll try to keep these previews upbeat, the end of the season can’t come soon enough. If you are looking for some tips, we’ll just round off with Both Teams to Score and Over 3.5 Goals. They are familiar options for us, and they seem likely stakes, considering the way the club is heading into the final matches of a sorry campaign.
Best Bets
- Both Teams to Score at 8/13 with Unibet
- Over 3.5 Goals at 18/11 with VBet