Tottenham Hotspur will entertain Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday night with both sides looking to pick up all three points in the London derby. Spurs suffered a 1-0 loss at the hands of Brighton and Hove Albion in their last outing in the Premier League. In contrast, the Blues secured an impressive 2-0 win over Burnley last weekend, which will give them some momentum going into this midweek clash at North London.
Talking Tactics
Jose Mourinho will probably opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation and could be inclined to make a few changes to his first XI for this game. The Portuguese tactician might choose to play with the pacey frontline of Lucas Moura, Carlos Vinicius and Heung-min Son with Tanguy Ndombele hopefully making some plays for them from the number ten position.
Thomas Tuchel will once again set his team up in a 3-4-2-1 formation and is likely to make some tweaks to his side for this crucial derby on the road. The Chelsea boss will ask his players to enjoy more of the ball and create a few clear-cut chances using the pace of Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner in the final third.
Team News
Tottenham Hotspur
Tanguy Ndombele and Dele Alli are both slight concerns for this game. However, Sergio Reguilon is unlikely to recover in time as he is still nursing his way back from a muscle injury.
Tottenham Hotspur Predicted XI
Hugo Lloris, Matt Doherty, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Harry Winks, Lucas Moura, Tanguy Ndombele, Heung-min Son, Carlos Vinicius
Chelsea
Hakim Ziyech should be available in midweek after he missed out against Burnley as a precautionary measure. Otherwise, Tuchel has no fresh injury headaches to cope with ahead of this highly anticipated game on Thursday night.
Chelsea Predicted XI
Edouard Mendy, Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rüdiger, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner
Key Men
Tottenham Hotspur
Heung-min Son will once again carry most of the goal-scoring workload for Spurs from the left flank in the injury absence of Harry Kane. The defensive performance of Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier could go a long way in determining the fate of this contest.
Chelsea
Both Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic will have to find a way to retain possession at the centre of the park and find some holes in the Tottenham backline with their passing. Timo Werner also needs to have a big game if he gets the nod to lead the line for Chelsea in midweek.
Odds
The bookmakers have made Chelsea the slight favourites to win this game as they are priced at 11/10. The draw has been listed at 5/2 while Tottenham are 5/2 underdogs to secure a positive result in the London derby.
