Tottenham Hotspur will travel to Wales to take on Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on New Year’s Day hoping to close the gap to fourth-placed Liverpool in their quest to secure a top 4 finish this season. Harry Kane is major doubt for Mauricio Pochettino’s men as the star striker is suffering from an illness. He would be a big miss for Spurs after the record-breaking forward scored two hattricks in his last two league matches. The North London club are on a two-match winning streak and can make it three wins in a row versus 19th placed Swansea City, who got a rare away win under new manager Carlos Carvalhal at Watford in their last outing.
The recent history of this fixture doesn’t make a good reading for the Swans. The Welsh club has not tasted victory against the Spurs in any of their previous 14 encounters, losing 11 of those games. However, with a new manager at the helm, Swansea fans will be hoping that their players can put on an improved showing on the pitch and grind out a result against their North London counterparts. Tottenham is expected to deploy a 4-2-3-1 with or without star striker, Harry Kane. If their forward misses out due to illness, then Pochettino might opt for Fernando Llorente to lead the lines for Spurs at the Liberty Stadium.
4-2-3-1 Tottenham Hotspur Predicted Lineup To Face Swansea City
Defence
Hugo Lloris is set to retain his place in goal for the Spurs and might be shielded by a backline of Jan Vertonghen and Davinson Sánchez as centre-backs while Ben Davies takes his place at left-back and Kieran Trippier looks to use his talents on the right-side of the back four.
Pochettino’s defence has leaked in 20 goals in 20 league matches so the manager would be hoping that they can improve on that record by earning a clean sheet to start 2018 on the right foot.
Midfield
Moussa Sissoko and Eric Dier might be deployed as the holding midfielders in the Spurs midfield. The talented trio of Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min may be used to play behind Harry Kane as part of the Tottenham attack.
If Kane fails to make it to the game, it will be up to Eriksen, Son and Alli to come up with the ammunition which would take down the Swans on the day.
Attack
Harry Kane will be in for a late checkup to determine whether he can feature in the game. However, if he plays then we can expect him to lead the lines and once again, get his name on the scoresheet for Spurs.
The Spanish forward, Fernando Llorente will be on standby and might take the place of the English international if he is unable to feature.
