Tottenham Hotspurs hosts the struggling West Bromwich Albion at Wembley Stadium on Saturday for a Premier League match. A win for the Spurs over the Baggies would tentatively send the hosts to the third spot given that Chelsea who currently occupies that position will be playing later in the day. The Spurs are heading into the match against the backdrop of losing a league match last weekend against Arsenal in the game that the Gunners won 2-0. However, Mauricio Pochetino's men left the Premier League memory when they travel to Germany where the Spurs prevailed with a 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in a Champions League match.
Before the trip to London, West Bromwich Albion had failed to win in ten consecutive Premier League matches resulting to the sacking of Tony Pulis. Gary Megson will take over at the Hawthorns on a temporary basis and will oversee the Baggies' match against the North Londoners. A loss at Tottenham Hotspurs will see the visitors drop into the relegation zone if Swansea City wins its game.
Match facts
- Tottenham Hotspurs has only lost once in the sixteen Premier League meetings between the two clubs. In that run, the Spurs have won six times and drawn on eight occasions in the contests featuring the Baggies.
- The Spurs have only won one game in their last three Premier League matches while losing the remaining two. Tottenham Hotspurs lost to Manchester United before dropping the maximum points at Arsenal last week. Mauricio Pochetino's men only managed a single goal in that poor run of activities that saw the Spurs just pick three points from the possible nine.
- Harry Kane has found the back of the net for his team thirty-nine times in the thirty-eight competitive matches he has played this year. The lethal English striker has been involved in 99 Premier League goals in his Tottenham Hotspurs' career.
- Mauricio Pochetino's men are unbeaten in the last five Premier League contests that they've played in front of their home fans. The Spurs have won three consecutive league matches played at Wembley Stadium.
- Tottenham Hotspurs has only lost once in the last twenty-five Premier League games that they've hosted. The only game that the Spurs lost in their backyard was the 2-1 defeat in the hands of Chelsea early in the season at Wembley Stadium.
- During Tony Pulis tenure at West Bromwich Albion, his team managed to score 105 goals in 106 league appearances. The Baggies' scoring power was just averaging to a single goal per match during the reign of the former Stoke City manager.
- West Bromwich Albion is winless in the last ten Premier League matches losing six times while drawing in the remaining four events. However, three of the six losses have come against teams that finished in top five in the league in the previous season like Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester City.
Team news
The Spurs will be missing Toby Aldewereld and Victor Wanyama, while Erik Lamella is still unfit to feature in the first team.
However, the Spurs manager must be a happy man after seeing the Argentine player take part in the U23 squad for an hour.
The Baggies will be without James Morrison, Nacer Chaldi, and Craig Dawson who are still nursing various forms of injuries. Megson could come up with a team that has four defenders so that the visitors can stop his team from soaking in more goals the way they did last weekend against Chelsea.
Predictions
The Baggies are unlucky to meet four teams that finished in the top five in the previous season within just eight league matches. Even though the visitors are going through some tough times, it's difficult to make the Spurs the obvious favorites in the contest. Most matches featuring teams with new managers always end in stalemates and a draw could be on the cards since four of the last five games featuring the two sides that Tottenham Hotspurs have hosted have ended in draws.
The hosts could walk with a hard-fought home win to revive their title challenge for the third time in three seasons. However, the Baggies will get into the score sheet and spoil any ambition of the hosts of keeping a home clean sheet.
Full-time prediction: Tottenham Hotspurs 3-1 West Bromwich Albion
