TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR VS. LIVERPOOL
| Saturday, December 20th |
Premier League | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
5:30PM BST/12:30AM EST
Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur have been struggling for form this season, and Liverpool won’t be the only team in Saturday’s early kick-off glad to have had a bit of a mid-week breather. While the Reds have been inching towards improvement, though, Spurs are coming into Saturday off of a “bad performance” which “lacked energy” against Nottingham Forest.
Spurs have no new injuries to contend with, and (unlike
Liverpool) will have spent the week without a mid-week fixture building on the positives and addressing the negatives with an almost fully-fit side — though Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma are now away at AFCON, and Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke remain sidelined.
Spurs come into this one in 11th place on 22 points having recently lost 3-0 away at Forest following two home wins against Slavia Prague and Brentford. The form prior to this was worse, with an away draw to Newcastle and a home loss to Fulham rounding out their last five — though it’s perhaps notable that their 2-0 win against Forest is their last home league game. They have won just two of their last 25 Premier League games against Liverpool (D6 L17), with the last win coming at home in 2023 (and Liverpool having scored 11 total goals in the two dominant wins last season). Their loss to Forest last time out is their fourth Premier League loss by 3+ goals thus far in this calendar year.
Spurs aren’t the only team likely to concede, however. Per Opta, the Reds are behind only Bournemouth (16) when it comes to conceding two or more goals in more away games: Liverpool have shipped 15 away goals across the last two seasons, the second-most for teams who are still or currently playing in the Premier League. It’s been something of a pendulum, with Liverpool either keeping a clean sheet or conceding 2+ across the last 17 aways.
Richarlison is the player to watch for Tottenham here, as he’s consistently scored or assisted against Liverpool — though almost always at Anfield rather than at his home ground. He is their top Premier League scorer this season with six goals to his name, followed by Micky van de Ven on three. While 11 different Spurs players have scored in the league this season, no one has come close to double-digit goal tallies in fact or based on xG — indeed, fBref have Richarlison’s xG thus far this season on just 3.2. Though this is a positive in that he’s been clinical, that being the team high xG value speaks to some of their struggles.
As a team, they’ve conceded 21 goals in the league this season (xGA 21), which makes them comparable to the Reds. Much like last weekend’s match-up against Brighton, Liverpool will face opposition with issues that echo their own.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Alisson; Bradley, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Jones, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai, Ekitiké, Wirtz
Mohamed Salah is away at AFCON, and even if his absence feels less like a full-caps MISSING than we expected before the league kicked off he is a major option absent for the Reds. Jeremie Frimpong, himself apparently brought in with AFCON in mind, has returned to fitness, however, and may well feature on Saturday. Cody Gakpo’s scan was more positive than anticipated so he has an outside chance of featuring, but Joe Gomez will not be with the squad. Dominik Szoboszlai is also being monitored, and the Hungarian returned to training for the first time on Friday and may be fit enough to feature for Arne Slot’s men in London.
Hugo Ekitiké comes into this one on the back of two consecutive braces, and could become the first player since Luis Súarez to do so in three consecutive should he repeat the performance on Saturday. Given his strong form, he’s likely to start on Saturday, though the late fitness tests elsewhere will have a lot to say about who he plays with. While Slot praised his play in his pre-match press conference, he did softly suggest that the defensive side of his game has room for improvement.
Curtis Jones has likely done enough to earn himself a start in this one, and should Szoboszlai be fit we could see a similar line-up to the start of the last match in terms of Slot’s use of nominally midfield players. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister feel like easy calls, and Florian Wirtz is likely to start as well, both through good recent form and lack of other options. The fitness levels of Cody Gakpo, Jeremie Frimpong, and Dominik Szoboszlai are the big question marks, though if possible we’re likely to see all three.
Conor Bradley should hopefully be fit to do a full 90 minutes on Saturday, and Slot will have his pick of Andy Robertson or Miloš Kerkez on the other side.
That Liverpool, four points ahead of Spurs, have points level with 5th place and Spurs’ tally of 22 puts them at 11th also highlights how tight the league is thus far this year. With fourth place Chelsea facing a perhaps difficult trip to Newcastle, third-place Aston Villa hosting sixth-place Manchester United, fifth-place Palace traveling to Leeds, and Sunderland (in eighth but also on 26 points) traveling to Brighton, there could be some serious movement on the table after the weekend is up. If things take a particularly Liverpool-favored bounce the Reds could find themselves in the top four (though with a gap between fourth and the top three). Here’s hoping everything just…starts going Liverpool’s way.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “”We are getting closer and closer to the team I want us to be … We have to improve so that we are not so dependent on luck – make sure that this team gets to a level so that referee decisions do not influence results in a way that they have done in recent weeks.”
Thomas Frank: “he best teams create a stamina where they are very resilient to setbacks. That’s something we’re working hard on. That’s not a quick fix. The Fulham game was not a great start, tough 30 minutes – but we worked our way back. We didn’t get the fantastic comeback, but it was a good step – mentality, character wise. It’s bit by bit.”
The Officials
Referee: John Brooks Assistants: Simon Bennett, James Mainwaring Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor VAR: Stuart Attwell Assistant VAR: Adam Nunn
If you haven’t done so already, we’d love if you signed up for an SB Nation account and join the community at TLO. We’ll bring you and your fellow Liverpool fans from around the world full coverage of every match from the 2025-26 season in the Premier League, Champions League, and domestic cups along getting you breaking news, insight and opinion, tactical discussion, and post-match reactions as the new season plays out. Hopefully you’ll join us for it!
