The Premier League offers an intriguing fixture at 8:15pm BST on Thursday night when Tottenham will host Manchester United. Ryan Mason takes charge of Tottenham after the sacking of Antonio Conte and then interim manager, Cristian Stellini. Mason will cover as manager/coach for now but we won’t say until the end of the season as he could also be sacked in a couple of weeks. Below is my preview of the big match with Spurs knowing that anything other than a win could harm their Europa League qualification chances, let alone their Champions League aspirations.
Home Form a Shining Light for Spurs
To give Spurs their credit, they do have a good home record this season. If we look at the Premier League home form then we’ll see 11 wins and 5 defeats. Those 5 defeats have been against Newcastle, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and, most recently, Bournemouth. The first 4 on that are matches against good teams while the loss at Bournemouth was in the 95th minute when Spurs were chasing a winner.
They’ve had no draws at home this season in the league and have been very attacking in their play. They have by far a better home record than away, with 2.06 points per game at home vs 1.25 points away. That’s a 0.81 points difference.
They’re coming off the back of massive defeats of 6-1 to Newcastle and that 3-2 loss to Bournemouth. They played well to beat Brighton but the Seagulls dominated that match and they also should have had a penalty. So whilst Tottenham do have a strong overall home record, if we look at the performance of the last 4-5 matches then it’s rather poor.
They currently sit 6th place in the league with Villa winning yesterday and if they do not get at least a point here then they’ll stay there. If they lose thos match against Manchester United then Liverpool are primed to take over 6th position with their game-in-hand.
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A Satisfactory Season So Far for United
Much like Tottenham, Manchester United have a much better home record than away. They have 2.40 points per game at home this season but their away form shows just 1.53 points, with a difference of 0.87 points. In fact, these two only have Liverpool above them (out of the top 10) to have such dominance at home compared to away.
However, Erik ten Hag’s men are slowly turning that around now and large parts of that record are reflected by the poor start to the season. Indeed, the Red Devils have won 4 of their last 8 away matches and lost 3 games. They sit 5th position in the away form league table over the last 8 matches.
The biggest issue for United is how many goals they concede. Home form in the last 8 matches, they’ve conceded just 4 goals. Away form in the last 8 matches, they’ve conceded 14 goals. United will know that Tottenham are vulnerable in this match and they’ll need all 3 points if they are to keep the pressure on Newcastle who are expected to beat Brighton tonight.
Head-to-Head and Team News
Manchester United won the reverse fixture at Old Trafford 2-0 with goals from Fred and Bruno Fernandes, back in October. United have a strong record against Tottenham and have won 84 out of 156 matches. Spurs have won just 40 of these encounters. Spurs have also lost the last 4 against Man United and have lost the last 2 home matches 0-3 and 1-3. They’ve not beaten United at home since 2018.
Tottenham will have no new injury problems for this match and are expected to go to a back 3 after the horror show 6-1 thrashing against Newcastle. Manchester United, however, are likely to be without Fernandes, which is a major blow. That’s not set in stone though and are likely unchanged if he does play after a good showing against Brighton in the penalty shootout win in the FA Cup Semi-Final on the weekend.
Tottenham vs Manchester United Betting Tips
I think this one could be closer than people think. Spurs will have to improve after that horror result and they’re at home. At home, they’ve been the only team this year to beat Manchester City, which says it all about the potential to get a result. I think Fernandes playing or not is key to this one but either way I expect both teams to score. I’ll go with that bet and Manchester United nicking the win.
Manchester United to Win and Both Teams To Score @ 3/1 with Bet365
All odds are accurate at the time of writing.
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