Tottenham’s Premier League campaign gets underway on Saturday afternoon against Southampton and it’s fair to say that Spurs head into this one as favourites.
Indeed, big things are expected from the north London club after a summer of spending, and after a gruelling pre-season under Antonio Conte, Tottenham should be raring to go.
Of course, no game at this level is ever easy, but Southampton had a poor finish to last season, and while they’ve spent money this summer, they’ve prioritised youth over quality.
Tottenham are expected to win this one, but on the opening day, the performance is sometimes more important than the result.
With that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Spurs’ starting XI for this match against the Saints.
Interestingly, we’re only tipping one of Tottenham’s summer signings to start this game.
Dean Jones stated earlier this week that he heard from someone very well-connected within Spurs that only Ivan Perisic would start this game out of all the new signings, and that would make sense.
Djed Spence barely had a pre-season, Yves Bissouma is an injury doubt, Ben Davies did enough last season to hold onto his spot for now, while Richarlison is kept out of this one by a suspension.
Therefore, this is a rather familiar XI despite a summer of activity in the transfer market.
Matt Doherty returns from injury at wing-back, while Cristian Romero, Eric Dier and Ben Davies make up the bulk of the defence.
Perisic starts down the left, while injuries to Oliver Skipp and Bissouma mean that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur start in the midfield.
Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane are nailed-on starters in this one, and they’re joined by Kulusevski up top here.
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