da spicy bet： Tottenham Hotspur will look to bounce back from their disappointing 1-0 defeat against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, and get their top-four hopes back on track in the process, when they host Newcastle United at Wembley on Wednesday night.
da dobrowin： Spurs could have moved a step closer to securing Champions League football for next season when they faced the bottom-of-the-table Baggies at the Hawthorns at the weekend, but they struggled throughout and eventually succumbed to an injury-time winner from one of their former players, Jake Livermore.
The north London outfit’s advantage over fifth-place Chelsea was cut to just two points as their London neighbours beat Liverpool 1-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, and Mauricio Pochettino’s men will certainly be looking nervously over their shoulder with just two fixtures left to play.
The Argentine boss switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation and made four changes to the team that beat Watford 2-0 for the trip to the west Midlands, with Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama and Erik Lamela coming into the XI, but Pochettino may be considering making more alterations following such a disappointing display.
Here is how Tottenham must line up against Newcastle, ahead of Hugo Lloris in goal…
Pochettino decided to go with a back three of Jan Vertonghen, Davinson Sanchez and Toby Alderweireld – bringing the Belgian in for what is a rare start nowadays – and the Tottenham backline was just seconds away from a clean sheet at the Hawthorns.
With Alderweireld doing a perfectly fine job, the Argentine boss should stick with the three at the back and the same personnel for the visit of Newcastle to Wembley, where they are only likely to come up against one Magpies striker based on the majority of Rafa Benitez’s line-ups this term.
Pochettino’s first-choice central midfield duo has been Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele this term following a significant injury for Victor Wanyama earlier in the season, but the duo were both absent from the XI at the Hawthorns.
While Dembele missed out through injury, Dier was named on the substitutes’ bench with Wanyama and Christian Eriksen starting in the centre.
It wasn’t an experiment that worked particularly well however, but with Dembele and Dier set to be absent again against the Magpies, Wanyama should start alongside Moussa Sissoko instead, with Kieran Tripper as a right wing-back and Ben Davies coming in for the disappointing Danny Rose on the opposite flank.
With Son Heung-Min struggling for form in recent weeks, Pochettino decided to give Erik Lamela an opportunity to impress from the start against West Brom, but he failed to take it and was destroyed by Spurs fans on Twitter for his first-half display.
The Argentine winger was eventually replaced by Lucas Moura in the 78th minute – the Brazilian must be given a chance in the XI against Newcastle alongside Eriksen – while Dele Alli should drop to the bench following an off-colour performance at the Hawthorns.
That leaves Harry Kane up top, and he will be looking to get back on the goal trail having drawn a blank at the weekend.
Do you agree, Spurs fans? Let us know below.