Tottenham Hotspur will welcome Chelsea on Sunday afternoon in what looks to be a fiery and feisty London derby.

Tottenham will come into the match off the back of a dismal three goals to nil defeat against Crystal Palace which finds them sitting in seventh.

With the north London derby against Arsenal FC next week and a difficult tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers during the week in the league cup, Tottenham know that if they win on Sunday, not only would it give them great confidence, but they would also leapfrog Chelsea in the premier league table.

In contrast, Chelsea come into this match on the back of a thrilling three-goal to nil win against Aston Villa last weekend that finds them sitting in second deadlocked with Manchester United on points. 

With what looks to be a season-defining match against Manchester City next Saturday and a rematch with Villa in the cup midweek Chelsea will be hoping to secure all three points on Sunday afternoon to put them in a strong position against Manchester City.

Team news

Thomas Tuchel has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the match on Sunday with Christian Pulisic still set to miss out, however, N'Golo Kanté will be available to be involved having missed the last few matches due to injury.

Meanwhile, things have gone from bad to worse for Nuno Espirito Santos in terms of injuries. The latest casualties are Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn who both got injured during Tottenham's two all draw against Stade Rennais F.C. on Thursday. However, Davinson Sanchez, Giovani Lo Celso, and Cristian Romero should all be available following their quarantine period.

Predicted lineups

Tottenham: Lloris, Reguilon, Romero, Rodon, Emerson, Hoijbjerg, Skipp, Gil, Alli, Ndombele, Kane

Chelsea: Mendy, Silva, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kovacic, Jorginho, James, Lukaku, Werner, Havertz

Players to watch

Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku continued where he left off last weekend when he got the vital goal on Wednesday to help Chelsea overcome a stubborn Zenit St Petersburg in the champions league.

Tuchel will be hoping that he can repeat the feat against Tottenham to help them continue their unbeaten start to the season. Lukaku will also take confidence in the difficulty that the Tottenham defence had on Thursday to cope with Rennes striker Serhou Guirassy who is a similar type of striker to Lukaku.

Harry Kane

Following this summer where he led England to the final of euro 2020, many people were expecting Harry Kane to be scoring goals left-right, and center under Nuno. However so far this season he has been relatively quiet.

However, despite the slow start to the season Tottenham and Chelsea fans alike know that Kane only needs one chance and given how Tottenham will be playing at home at the weekend in front of their own fans there is every chance that Kane will score.

Last time out

The last time these two faced each other was in the mind series before the start of the premier league season in what ended in two all draw.

Tottenham started brightly and got a chance very early on when in the fourth minute Lucas and Bergwijn combined on the left-hand side before crossing a ball to Son in the Chelsea box who tired to shoot in the bottom corner however Edouard Mendy got down to save it.

However, it was Chelsea that took first blood in the 16th minute. Kante slid in to win the ball off Lucas which went straight to Hakim Ziyech who ran at the Tottenham defence and unleashed a powerful low strike from 25 yards out that found the back of the net.

Chelsea started the second half quickly and just four minutes in Ziyech got his and Chelsea's second. Kai Havertz attacked with the ball down the left-hand side before finding Marcos Alonso who slid and crossed the ball to Ziyech who took a touch and again unleashed a powerful low driven shot into the Tottenham goal.

However, against the run of play Tottenham got a goal back. Lucas found Dele Alli in the middle of the box and after a number of deflections the ball came back Lucas where another deflection looped the ball over Mendy's head to get Tottenham on the scoresheet.

The comeback was complete in the 70th minute. Malang Sarr gave the ball away in his own half allowing Son to latch onto it who passed to Bergwijn on the left, who held off Trevoh Chalobah before dispatching the ball through Mendy's legs.

How to watch

The game will be shown live on sky sports from 4pm on Sunday following the conclusion of United vs West Ham United.

 

VAVEL Logo
About the author