1 year ago
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The players are in the tunnel. I would argue Villa have the better pre-match jacket but I am open to persuasion.
Just tucking into some Romanian sour soup pre-match. I live a weird life.
Unai Emery on Martinez being on the bench: “It was our plann. He needed time to rest. He has trained two times. We have Robin Olsen and we trust our players.”
On the match: “We did good play against Liverpool but were disappointed with the result. We need to keep the same mentality and we will win.”
Leon Bailey: “We are still building, we are lot more understanding of the manager. It is a process for us, we are going to take things step-by-step. It is a big game, we are going to stick to our game plan.
“The game plan today is to create a lot of opportunities. Hopefully we can take one of them.”
These on-pitch interviews a mind-boggling, mainly due to the laboured questioning and over-excited camera work. I am not sure it is worth it.
Conte: “It is very important to have Hugo and Romero in the starting XI. They are in good physical condition and recovered mentally.
“In the last games we have conceded the first goal and we have had to come back. We need to pay more attention.”
Son: “It is very important we finish in a top four position and we have that in our hands. We need to start well.”
Dejan Kulusevski is missing with a muscle problem picked up in training. He is set to undergo a scan tomorrow and Conte hopes he will only miss a single match.
“How is Cristian Romero in the squad today?” asks Alec Butcher. “Surely he’s still nursing the world’s biggest hangover? Also Gil gets a rare start but expect him to be hooked at 39 mins when Spurs go 0-2 down as is our custom recently. Nice to Pape Sarr and Djed make bench."
Romero is just a committed professional.
Unai Emery is back in north London. He had a somewhat underwhelming spell as Arsene Wenger’s successor. He has won half of his four games in charge of Villa and will see how close his team are to being able to challenge the top six.
Naturally, there is another Premier League match after this one. Here is my look at Forest and the year ahead.
Bryan Gil gets his first Premier League start for Spurs since joining the club in 2021. He is only 21 still, so has time to develop and flourish under Antonio Conte. Today would be a good time to show what he can offer.
How has your Premier League done in the first half of the season? We asked the fans.
Emi Martinez is left on the bench for Villa but Cristian Romero starts for Spurs. Go figure.
Starting lineups
Tottenham (3-4-3): Lloris; Romero, Lenglet, Davies; Doherty, Hojbjerg, Bissouma, Perisic; Gil, Kane, Son
Subs: Forster, Dier, Tanganga, Sanchez, Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Spence, Sarr, Skipp
Aston Villa (4-3-3): Olsen; Young, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Kamara; Buendia, Watkins, Bailey
Subs: Martinez, Cash, Sanson, Ings, Chambers, Augustinsson, Bednarek, Coutinho, Archer
Hello
Happy New Year! I hope you have all set your resolutions for 2023. Harry Kane admits his is the same every year: to improve. It is a nice idea but at some point he will regress, so he should just cut back on the sugar or something.
We have, in theory, a re-run of the World Cup final with Hugo Lloris in one goal and Emi Martinez down the other end trying to control his urge to sexualise his goalkeeper gloves. Nor should we forget that Cristian Romero is available for Antonio Conte. It is a slightly different setting to Qatar and we might not get the thriller the final provided but I am optimistic of a decent match.
Villa were turned over by Liverpool in their Premier League return, so will be hoping to kickstart the second half of the season under Unai Emery today, but that is easier said than done.
Spurs have won 12 of the past 14 meetings between the two sides, a sign of their dominance in this fixture. They are struggling for consistency under Conte, perfectly summarised by their comeback draw at Brentford on Boxing Day.
Both sides will be looking to start the year with a bang. Let’s hope it’s a cracker!
Kick-off: 2pm GMT
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