Under fire Spurs must avoid huge slip-up against sorry Saints
Tottenham play Southampton later today
Action Images via Reuters
Tottenham vs Southampton – LIVE
Spurs today host Southampton in the Premier League. Ange Postecoglou is under increasing pressure in north London after Thursday’s loss at Chelsea made it 16 defeats for the season thus far. While the Europa League is the only thing left to play for this season, Postecoglou cannot afford what would be an embarrassing slip-up today.
Indeed, Saints have endured a thoroughly miserable campaign and are still yet to amass the points required to beat Derby County’s all-time Premier League points record of 11. Still, they earned a draw against Crystal Palace last time out and have little to lose ahead of their trip to Spurs later today.
While all eyes at Tottenham will no doubt be on Thursday’s huge first-leg clash against Eintracht Frankfurt, the idea of losing to this Southampton side is not worth considering for X. Follow all the action LIVE with Standard Sport’s dedicated match blog! Dan Kilpatrick will be providing expert analysis from the ground.
Tottenham vs Southampton latest news
Ange Postecoglou has himself to blame as actions risk losing Tottenham fans previously focused on Daniel Levy
An all-too-familiar result at Stamford Bridge on Thursday changed little for the outlook of Tottenham's season – they are still 14th in the table, still relying on the Europa League to salvage their miserable campaign – but Ange Postecoglou's clash with supporters was a significant moment.
Postecoglou has denied he was goading fans when he cupped his ear towards the away end after substitute Pape Matar Sarr, whose introduction for Lucas Bergvall was jeered by sections of the travelling fans, thought he had equalised in the 70th-minute – only for the goal to be ruled out on the advice of the VAR.
Read the full story here!
Getty Images
Tottenham vs Southampton: Head to head (h2h) history and results
Tottenham wins: 46
Draw: 22
Southampton wins: 27
Ange Postecoglou in difficult position with little to gain as Tottenham look to avoid Southampton banana skin
Tottenham's home game against Southampton on Sunday is a potential banana skin with no obvious upsides for Ange Postecoglou's struggling team.
Postecoglou has billed the game as a valuable chance for Spurs to build momentum ahead of the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday -- on which their season and probably his job depend -- but, Saints are such a sorry outfit that even thrashing them is unlikely to significantly change the mood music in north London.
Read Dan Kilpatrick’s full preview here!
Getty Images
Tottenham vs Southampton: Why isn't Premier League game live on TV in UK today?
The game is being played at 2pm BST on Sunday, so does not fall within the blackout rules imposed across English football on a Saturday at 3pm.
But it has not been selected for live coverage by Sky Sports, who are instead showing Fulham vs Liverpool followed by Manchester United vs Manchester City at Old Trafford.
ES Composite
Tottenham vs Southampton: Premier League score prediction today
It can be tricky to bet on Spurs this season as their results have been somewhat unpredictable (see January’s 2-1 loss to Leicester), but it is near impossible to justify putting any money behind Southampton.
The squad will recognize the now-or-never nature of the game. Ahead of next week’s season-defining Europa League tie, there could be no better preparation than a straightforward, confidence-boosting league win. Southampton should not pose too much of a threat to the Lilywhites.
Prediction: Tottenham 4-0 Southampton.
REUTERS
Southampton team news vs Tottenham today
Ivan Juric has not had an easy time since replacing Russell Martin at Southampton, though injuries have not been too big an issue. He has just one player out for Sunday as Will Smallbone recovers from a groin injury.
Midfielder Flynn Downes will miss out as he serves a two-match suspension. He picked up a tenth booking of the season in last week’s home draw to Crystal Palace.
Getty Images
Tottenham team news vs Southampton today
Ange Postecoglou is expected to make changes against Southampton ahead of Tottenham’s Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
Micky van de Ven, Heung-min Son and James Maddison are likely to be rested and Djed Spence could also be saved for Frankfurt after a recent bout of illness.
Pedro Porro, who was given a rare rest for the 1-0 defeat at Chelsea, is likely to return to the side at right-back, while Ben Davies could deputise for Van de Ven at centre-half.
Yves Bissouma has been replaced at half-time in three of his last five starts, so Lucas Bergvall, who only played an hour against the Blues, may continue at No6, with Pape Matar Sarr also likely to start.
Son could be replaced by Brennan Johnson or Mathys Tel in the front three, although Mikey Moore is also pushing for minutes and Richarlison is set to return to the squad after a muscle injury.
Postecoglou remains without Dejan Kulusevski (foot), Kevin Danso (hamstring) and Radu Dragusin (knee) but said he had no fresh injury concerns after a 16th defeat of the league season at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
Asked if he would rotate at Saints, who Spurs beat 5-0 at St. Mary's in December, Postecoglou said: "To a certain extent, we are a little bit beyond that as the group is in a decent place physically where I don’t have to get players gametime.
"As I said, it is about getting some momentum leading into the game on Thursday. We will make a couple of changes but we won’t make too many."
Getty Images
Tottenham vs Southampton: TV channel and live stream for Premier League today
TV channel: In the UK, the game is not due to be televised live.
Live stream: Fans can follow radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog, with expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick at the ground.
Free highlights: The Sky Sports app and YouTube channel will show highlights post-match, with Match of the Day 2 broadcasting on BBC One at 10:30pm.
ES Composite
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to Standard Sport’s LIVE coverage of Tottenham’s Premier League clash against Southampton.
Kick-off from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is at 2pm BST.
Action Images via Reuters
MORE ABOUT