Can Ange Postecoglou get another result against the Red Devils? We look ahead to Thursday’s EFL Cup quarter-final with our Tottenham vs Man Utd prediction and preview.
Tottenham vs Man Utd Stats: The Key Insights
Tottenham are backed to overcome Manchester United in 90 minutes, winning 46.5% of pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer.
Man Utd are winless in their last four games against Spurs and were 3-0 losers to them in the Premier League this season.
Spurs have progressed from their last four quarter-final ties in the EFL Cup.
Tottenham and Manchester United head into Thursday’s EFL Cup quarter-final meeting after statement victories last weekend.
Ruben Amorim got one over fierce rivals Manchester City at the first time of asking, snatching a late 2-1 victory on Sunday. United had trailed to Josko Gvardiol’s header, before Amad Diallo won a penalty for Bruno Fernandes to score, and then scored a last-gasp winner of his own.
Both Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were left out of the travelling squad for that derby-day win, with Amorim laying down the marker for his demands early into his tenure. He may be tempted to bring Garnacho back, however, considering his EFL Cup record.
No player has more than the United winger’s three assists in the competition this season, while he also scored another three. He is the first to manage 3+ for both goals and assists in an EFL Cup campaign since Kevin De Bruyne in 2015-16 (5 goals, 3 assists) and first to do so for United since Louis Saha in 2005-06 (6 goals, 3 assists).
Those impressive numbers from Garnacho have helped United smash 12 goals in this season’s EFL Cup, the most of any side. They hammered Barnsley 7-0 and Leicester City 5-2 in the previous rounds, and could become just the second team in history to score five or more goals in three straight matches in the competition.
Chelsea are the only previous side to achieve that feat in 2012 (6-0 vs Wolves, 5-4 vs Man Utd, 5-1 vs Leeds United), though the Red Devils’ route to the last eight has been far from conventional. The Barnsley thrashing came under Erik ten Hag before Ruud van Nistelrooy oversaw the win over Leicester, prior to joining the Foxes as their new manager.
With Amorim now in charge, a feat could be on offer. Only three Premier League teams have progressed from three consecutive rounds in a season under a different manager – Sunderland in 2013-14 (Paolo Di Canio, Kevin Ball and Gus Poyet), Southampton in 2022-23 (Ralph Hasenhüttl, Ruben Sellés and Nathan Jones) and Wolves in 2022-23 (Bruno Lage, Steve Davis and Julen Lopetegui).
Spurs also thrashed Southampton 5-0 in their last outing, with all those goals coming in the first half at St. Mary’s. James Maddison scored twice, with Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Pape Sarr also on target for Ange Postecoglou’s side.
That somewhat eased the mounting pressure on Postecoglou, whose side had gone winless in five games across all competitions before the Southampton thumping.
The next challenge for Postecoglou will be edging Tottenham further towards silverware in the EFL Cup, in which they have progressed from each of their last four quarter-final ties. Their last such defeat came in a 2-1 loss against West Ham in the 2013-14 campaign.
Spurs have their own cup star, too, with Kulusevski matching Garnacho’s three assists in this season’s competition. He may be forced to feature here, considering Tottenham’s injury woes.
Son was removed at half-time against Southampton due to a knock and will be assessed before this clash. Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison and first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario are among the other headline absentees.
Amorim has little such concerns on the injury front. Mason Mount and Luke Shaw will be out for this fixture, while Noussair Mazraoui’s knock against Man City is still being assessed.
Tottenham vs Man Utd Head-to-Head
Tottenham will fancy their chances here given they have gone unbeaten in their last four meetings with United, drawing two and winning two in the Premier League.
Postecoglou’s side humiliated United with a 3-0 win at Old Trafford this season, though they have not won consecutive games against them since April 1990 (three in a row).
The pair have split wins evenly across six EFL Cup ties, though United have triumphed in each of their last two such meetings. Those successes came over a decade ago, however, winning the 2009 final on penalties along with a 2-0 victory in the 2009-10 quarter-final.
Tottenham vs Man Utd Prediction
The Opta supercomputer swayed towards a home victory inside 90 minutes, with Tottenham triumphing in 46.5% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.
United still hold a 27% chance of winning in normal time, while the draw – and a penalty shoot-out decider – was rated at 26.5%.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Thursday night, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.