Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United Preview

Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United Preview

Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United


Good morning, welcome to the Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN) Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United preview.

A game we would expect to win, but with both sides out of form over the course of the current campaign, predicting a result isn't straight forward.

Marcelo on Antonio Conte: 

"He’s triumphed in every team he’s managed. He’s a reference in world football, a coach that gets very high performances from his players."

Conte will need to with Spurs under-performing badly.

THE FACTS

When is Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United taking place? 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United will take place on Sunday 21st November, 2021 at 16:30 GMT.

Where is 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United taking place? 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United will take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London.

Where can I get tickets for 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United
Ticket information for Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United can be found on each club’s official website.

What TV channel is 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United on in the UK? 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United will be televised live on Sky Sports at 4:30pm.

Where can I stream 
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United in the UK? 
Sky Sports subscribers can stream Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United live via Sky Go.

Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United - THE LOWDOWN


TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
New Tottenham boss Antonio Conte has enjoyed a two-week international break, if enjoyed is the right word, where he has been able to work with the players not on international duty, but received injury news on three players during the break.

At least he has had time to integrate himself into the club and able to start to get to know immediate and related staff.

The weekend’s Premier League (PL) action concludes with the 100th competitive clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United, which is also Antoni Conte's first home game as the new Spurs head coach.

Conte will be hoping to secure his first Premier League victory here at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Leeds Utd to emulate the first game, which around 8,000 fans watched as Tottenham won 2-1 at the old White Hart Lane, way back in 1925.

Daniel Levy moved swiftly to secure the highly-coveted Italian manager which looks an even better move with Manchester United getting thrashed away against Watford yesterday. 

Ole must surely be on the brink (I hear he is sacked or leaving by mutual consent as it's called) and Conte would have been favourite for the job, but now there are no top quality managers available, apart from perhaps Zinidine Zidane.

Conte's he won at least once against each of the 53 Premier League and Serie A teams he has faced. 

However, he will need to get Tottenham scoring in order to achieve that feat so the seven goals netted by Harry Kane in less than two games for England will see the star striker come back full of confidence.

Spurs have only Norwich below them in the goals scored table, but then Leeds Utd only have Tottenham and Norwich City below them also. 

You won't need reminding that with only nine Premier League goals this season, Spurs are without a goal in three straight league games.

This will be the Italian's first meeting with Leeds, who, like Aston Villa seem to be struggling with ‘second-season syndrome’.

It is such a frequent circumstance now, that one of the promoted clubs seems to take the Premier League by storm, while the other two struggle and then come back down to earth when the other teams have worked them out.

Cult hero manager Marcelo Bielsa is looking to steer the former 1st Division champions (former name of the top division in English football) under the captaincy of Billy Bremner, away from a relegation dogfight.

Leeds did gain a confidence boosting win when they won their first away league game of the season at rock-bottom Norwich, but the quality of the opponents will leave Leeds fans under no illusions that they are struggling this season. 

Leeds United may well score, as they have in five of their last seven away H2Hs, although victory today would be their first at Spurs since 2001 (D1, L4 since).

Leeds forward Rodrigo has scored twice in his three appearances against Tottenham, both coming in 3-1 victories.

Although Oliver Skipp started in central midfield in Spurs’ most recent Premier League fixture away at Everton, he is suspended here and is likely to be replaced by Harry Winks, after Antonio Conte's words at the pre-match press conference about Tanguy Ndombele.

His view matches my often stated view that Ndombele is only interested when he has the ball at his feet, that his defensive game, which is 95% of the game, is nowhere near good enough.

Ndombele certain;y seems to live up to my article on The Selfish Generation.

I was encouraged by him actually sprinting, not something we have seen him do in two years, when running towards his own goal. His sprint, the only sprint I can ever remember him making for us, was when we were down to 10 men in our last game vs Everton, when he sprinted out of defence towards the half-way line to close down an opponent.

Will we start to see a more hard working Ndombele now, instead of the lazy loping around and staying out of the way Ndombele Spurs fans have witnessed so far?

Conte has been been hit with the news that defender Cristian Romero suffered a hamstring injury playing for Argentina, whilst Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg has a knee injury and Giovanni Lo Celso a thigh muscle injury.

LEEDS UNITED
Leeds United earned themselves a point with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at home to Leicester City in their most recent Premier League fixture.

That backed up their 2-1 victory away at Norwich City previous to that and Bielsa will be hoping to continue thehat recent run of form.

Their striker, Patrick Bamford, together with defenders Robin Koch and Luke Ayling are not available.

Left-back Junior Firpo, who is a former Spanish U-21 international who has chosen to play for the Dominican Republic, is an attacking threat and has a chance of being passed fit to at least play a part from the bench.

The same applies to central midfielder Jamie Shackleton and 19-year-old (20 next May) Leeds forward Joe Gelhardt.

THE TEAM NEWS

TOTTENHAM

SPURS PREDICTED XI (3-4-2-1): Lloris; Sanchez, Dier, Davies; Emerson, Alli, Winks, Reguilon; Lucas Moura, Son; Kane

UNAVAILABLE: Romero (Injured), Gil (Injured), Sessegnon (Injured), Skipp (Suspended)

QUESTIONABLE: Hojbjerg (Injured), Lo Celso (Injured)

LEEDS UNITED

LEEDS PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Meslier; Dallas, Llorente, Cooper, Struijk; Phillips, Forshaw; Raphinha, Rodrigo, Harrison; James

UNAVAILABLE: Ayling (Injured), Bamford (Injured), Koch (Injured)

QUESTIONABLE: Firpo (Fitness), Shackleton (Fitness), Gelhardt (Fitness)


The pressure is on Tottenham to put in a strong performance against a Leeds United side we put to the sword at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season. 

As the players become more familiar with the Conte system, positive results should follow, but of course most of the players have been away on international duty, giving an opportunity for players like Harry Winks and Japhet Tanganga to stake a claim.

Well that's it for this morning's offering folks.

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