Premier League: Manchester United- Tottenham Hotspur

 

We spoke last week, ahead of Tottenham's trip to QPR about the importance of that and this fixture and to stay in Champions League contention as long as possible .......
 

Of course, the game is no less important for Rangers who find themselves three points from safety after Aston Villa's midweek win. However, they have not beaten a single team in the top 12 of the EPL all season and are 0-1-8 against the top 7, including a 4-0 defeat in the reverse fixture, they rely hugely on the goals of Charlie Austin and if you cut off the supply to him, or limit it, you are already half way home. He has scored 15 of just 28 league goals, next best available goalscoring player ( Leroy Fer has a long term injury) is their back up striker "own goals" with three ! They have only managed 2 goals in eleven starts which were not scored by either Austin or Fer and all six league wins have come against teams who are, or were at the time of the game, in the bottom five. Hugely competitive midfielder Joey Barton is suspended, without him in the EPL over recent seasons Rangers are 1-1-13 , missing his influence it is far easier to control the centre of the pitch and the supply to the main striker. Spurs score a lot of late goals, only Manchester City have scored more, or have a better goal difference in the final 15 minutes of games and if they can get ahead and the hosts start to gamble, the visitors can further punish them late. We have also spoken many times about how well Spurs perform against the "weaker" teams, especially on the road and they have won 14 of 15 starts against promoted teams.
 

They won that 2-1 , but made hard work of it, after going two up half way through the second half, that is typical of the North London team who rarely do things the easy way, as denoted by their record of gaining more points from losing positions than any other EPL side, which at least ensures we know that they will not lie down if falling behind, which is especially important at somewhere like Old Trafford. Not that this is the fortress of old, United have a very decent home record of 11-1-2 but have still to play three of the top six and have drawn here with Chelsea and lost to Arsenal in the Cup just six days ago and the bigger. better teams learned several years ago that they will get chances at OT if they attack the hosts, take the game to them and do not arrive expecting to lose, like most teams did in the Sir Alex era. These two are both defensively suspect and rely on strong goalkeepers to get them out of trouble too often and I expect to see goals at both ends today, United have have conceded in 5 of 6 home starts against top flight opponents and seem sure to need at least two goals to get a result out of this, with Tottenham happy on the road, having won seven times away from WHL already and having in Harry Kane, the most inform striker in the Premier league with 14 goals in 13 outings.. They have also learned how to win over United and at OT , a venue and team they were previously under the spell of, having not won, home or away to United in 22 starts, they ended that run and are now unbeaten in the last five h2h meetings, including winning the last two here, scoring five goals in the process.

Hosts will stay in 4th with a point and I suspect that will be their priority, but it is hard not to see goals for both and if it is to end all sqaure, 2-2 is more likely than 0-0. Tottenham will go level on points with the Reds if they win and they can make it a hat trick of victories today and blow the race for 4th spot wide open and I will opt for .........1.5 units Tottenham Hotspur +0.25 ball 2.36 asian line/Sportmarket.