Two hungry teams clash on Saturday at White Hart Lane as Tottenham want to get back to winning ways and Swansea are desperate to move out of the relegation zone as soon as possible. Last season Tottenham won 2-1 against Swansea in London, while the reverse fixture ended 2-2. There have been three goals or more scored in each of the last five direct meetings between these two sides, but Swansea are without a win against the Spurs in the ten direct Premier League matches they had played so far. The last time Swansea won against Tottenham was all the way back in 1991, in a League Cup match.
Tottenham seemed capable of returning to their early-season form when they opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea last weekend, but they ended up losing that game 2-1. That was their second consecutive loss in all competitions after the Champions League defeat at Monaco in midweek, a result which marked their exit from the competition. That means Tottenham have won just one of their last ten games in all competition, quite a contrast with their previous five-match winning streak. Ben Davies, Erik Lamela and Toby Alderweireld are injured.
Swansea finally managed to end their very long victory drought last weekend, they had not won a game since the opening day of the season before the dramatic 5-4 triumph over Crystal Palace at Liberty Stadium. It was a rollercoaster game in which Swansea fought back from 1-0 down, then threw away a 3-1 lead and eventually found their way back thanks to a pair of stoppage-time goals from Fernando Llorente. However, leaking four goals at home against Crystal Palace might make facing Harry Kane and company look like a scary prospect for manager Bob Bradley and his team.
Probable line-ups:
Tottenham: Lloris - Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose - Wanyama, Dembele - Eriksen, Alli, Son Heung-Min - Kane
Swansea: Fabianski - Naughton, Fernandez, Amat, Taylor - Cork, Fulton, Fer - Sigurdsson, Llorente, Routledge
My prediction: Tottenham to win 4-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Tottenham win - 1.33
Draw - 5.00
Swansea win - 8.50
12/22/16, 11:12:01 PM
