If not for the Premier League’s decision to postpone all matches until April 4th, Tottenham fans would be nervously anticipating tomorrow’s meeting with Manchester United.
So, to lighten the mood during this difficult moment that stretches far beyond football, we’ve predicted how the match would have panned out.
Spurs XI
Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Vertonghen; Dier, Winks, Lo Celso; Lamela, Alli, Lucas.
Jose Mourinho would only have had a couple of decisions to make, with most choices made for him due to the squad’s injury crisis.
Ben Davies returned to training this week but he may not have been quite ready to start. Jan Vertonghen, who didn’t play against RB Leipzig, would have probably began on the left of a back four.
Other than that, the team almost picks itself at the moment. Eric Dier would have sat in front of the defence – or dropped into a back five – with Harry Winks and Giovani Lo Celso linking the midfield and attack.
Erik Lamela would have run about like a headless chicken behind Lucas Moura and Dele Alli in attack.
Key events
5 mins: GOAL – Dele Alli – Spurs 1-0 Man Utd
David de Gea beats Hugo Lloris in the race to make the first blunder. Everything has been going a bit too well for United recently, so the Spaniard spilling a tame Lucas Moura shot at the feet of Alli would see normalcy return.
26 mins: GOAL – Odion Ighalo – Spurs 1-1 Man Utd
Rewarded for his midweek exploits with a start, United’s January arrival levels things up, curling the ball into the top corner from the edge of the area – despite Lloris getting a big hand to it. Spurs had missed three simple chances in the two minutes prior.
89 mins – GOAL RULED OUT BY VAR – Dele Alli – Spurs 1-1 Man Utd
After a distinctly average hour of football, Spurs retain the lead – but not for long. Erik Lamela – who somehow escaped a red card despite making 15 fouls – gets away from his marker and fires a shot past De Gea. After a four-minute VAR check, the ball is deemed to have brushed an offside Alli’s untied laces.
Final score – Spurs 1-1 Man Utd
Spurs fail to make up any ground on United in the battle for Champions League football. Mourinho says Tanguy Ndombele should have shown more energy on the bench.
Let us know how you think the game would have panned out in the comments section below.
United would have won 3-0.
Changing the subject; just watched Dele’s 50 goals on the website.
What a pleasure and what a talent.
He getting his form back is an absolute must and building a “new” team around him must be No 1 priority(played of course in his best position).