Tottenham face ‘nemesis’ on road to top four
Tottenham Hotspur faces a tough opponent at a crucial crossroads.
Tottenham will host Aston Villa at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, on Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. ET in the 28th round of the 2023-2024 Premier League season.
It’s a potentially watershed match in the race for the league’s top four. Tottenham are on 50 points (15 wins, 5 draws, and 6 losses), five points behind Aston Villa (55 points, 17 wins, 4 draws, and 6 losses), who have played one game less. If they win the head-to-head, they can close the gap to two points. A loss, on the other hand, would widen the gap to eight points, 안전놀이터 making the fight for fourth a tough one.
Tottenham’s weakness against Villa is that they’ve been underwhelming. They have lost three consecutive league games in a row.
Even under manager Enzi Postecoglou, they have not been able to overcome their inexperience, losing to Aston Villa in the first half. Villa are in good spirits after three straight league wins.
The good news is that they played Ajax in the UEFA Europa Conference. Against a strong Ajax side, Villa fielded a number of first-teamers but were held to a 0-0 draw.
Tottenham will be able to field a full-strength squad, with the possible exception of Heurelisson.
Captain Son Heung-min is expected to start. This season, Son has 13 goals and six assists in the league, leading the Spurs attack. Whether he’s playing on the left wing or in the center of the field, he’s racking up the points.
But it’s not Ollie Watkins, who has 16 goals, or playmaker Yuri Tillemans who Spurs need to be most wary of against the hated Villarreal. It’s “Tottenham Killer” right back Matt Cassidy.
Cash’s biggest strength is his ability to tie up opponents in a solid defense. He’s quick on his feet and active, but he also plays with a toughness that allows him to shut down opposing attackers.
However, his sometimes overly rough play can cause injuries to opponents.
Against Tottenham, a rough tackle on Matt Doherty in the 2021-2022 season sidelined him for three months and Rodrigo Bentancur in the first half of the 2023-2024 season sidelined him for two months.
While Cash’s frequent ‘unsportsmanlike’ behavior will be an issue to overcome, Spurs will also have to deal with the one-sided support from Villa’s home fans. 카지노사이트 추천 On social media, one Villa fan went so far as to make a chant about Cassie’s injury to Tottenham players ahead of the game.
This fan’s cheer for Cash went too far. “Our number 2, the right back, he blew Doherty out injured and sent off Bentancur, he likes to ‘attack’, our number 2, Cash,” he wrote. It included mocking an opponent’s injury.
Aside from some Villa fans, the reaction from fans of other teams was cold. One Tottenham fan commented, “So the only thing he did right was injure the other team’s player?” and called the chant inappropriate.