Tottenham haven’t had the best of times recently, losing their last two games against Liverpool and Brighton, and things don’t get much easier on Thursday evening as they prepare to face Chelsea.
Jose Mourinho facing off against his old team is always a spectacle to behold, and this time he’ll be facing off against yet another new manager, as Thomas Tuchel prepares to take charge of his third league game at the Blues.
Mourinho will be desperate to hand Tuchel his first loss as Chelsea boss, but with a depleted squad, he’ll have to make sure he gets his team selection spot on for this one.
With that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Spurs’ starting XI here.
We think that Mourinho will opt to make two changes for this match.
Davinson Sanchez drops out of the side, with Matt Doherty returning to the back four at right-back, while we also expect Gareth Bale to return to the bench after failing to impress in his second league start of the season, with Carlos Vinicius coming into the side.
Aside from that, it’a about what you’d expect Spurs to look like. Joe Rodon and Toby Alderweireld continue to build their budding defensive partnership, while Ben Davies continues at left-back in the absence of Sergio Reguilon.
Mourinho hinted that Tanguy Ndombele could play in a deeper role in his press conference this week, but we don’t think he’ll opt for that change in such an important game. Therefore, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Moussa Sissoko play behind Ndombele who once again takes up a more advanced role.
Heung-min Son and Steven Bergwijn attack down the flanks, while Carlos Vinicius takes up the number nine position in the absence of Harry Kane.
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