Tottenham look to bounce back from an unfortunate loss to Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League by beating a struggling Aston Villa side on Sunday at Villa Park.
Tottenham are second in the league and need to take all three points if they want to keep pace with league leaders Leicester City. Aston Villa have been the embarrassment of the Premier League this season as they sit in last place and look sure to be relegated at the end of the season.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino opted for a weaker side against Dortmund of Thursday and with the beatdown they gave them Tottenham have a tough climb if they want to advance in the Europa League. Becuase of that, expect Pochettino to field a similar squad against Dortmund on Thursday.
Pochettino will start most of the first team tomorrow and look to take Aston Villa out of the match early. Danny Rose, Eric Dier and Dele Alli are all back and available for selection. Jan Vertoghen and Clinton N’Jie still remain out.
With that being said here’s the lineup I think Pochettino will go with.
Goalie
Hugo Lloris will once again be starting in net for the Lilywhites.
Defence
Pochettino will be rotating his fullbacks again. Kyle Walker will start for Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose will start in place of Ben Davies.
Toby Alderwiereld and Kevin Wimmer will be the centre-backs. Wimmer didn’t have the best outing against Dortmund on Thursday, but for the most part has been brilliant filling in for Vertoghen. The Austrian will surely recover his form tomorrow.
Midfield
The midfield combination of Eric Dier and Mousa Dembélé will be reunited after Pochettino choose not to start either of them against Dortmund of Thursday.
Dier should be fully rested after being left in London while Dembélé just came on as a substitute. They should have no problem controlling the midfield tomorrow.
Christian Eriksen will be the centre attacking midfielder on Sunday and should easily be able to dictate the match. Dele Alli will be to his left after missing Thursday’s match due to serving a suspension.
Erik Lamela will be to his right after not starting on Thursday as well. If Alli is rested or possibly still nursing that nagging foot injury then Son Heung-min or Nacer Chadli will start in his place.
Striker
Harry Kane will be up top after not starting against Dortmund and will look to breakdown Villa’s backline.
Tottenham should easily win this match by more than one goal. Anything else should really be a disappointment. Winning the Europa League is really out of the picture at Pochettino and the rest of lads should now solely focus on winning the league.
What changes would you make and what do you think the result will be?
(4-2-3-1)
Via – Lineup Builder
