While many will still be tasting what remains of the Christmas dinner, Tottenham and Southampton will open on Tuesday, December 26, the twentieth round of English Premier League 2017/2018 edition. In theory, this is the first round of the second round, although the Premier League does not insist on keeping the same order of the games. At the Wembley Stadium in London, the match starts scheduled for 10:30 am.
Tottenham’s recent performance
A good 3-0 away away against Burnley on Saturday, December 23, provided grounds for Tottenham’s athletes to celebrate Christmas with a sense of duty. Reaching 34 points (ten wins, four draws and five losses), the club managed to return to the European tournament qualifying zone via the English championship, moving up to fifth.
To make the New Year’s celebration even more lively, the next goal is to put the Londoners in the top four, who would have place in the Champions League instead of the Europa League. In this battle, the closest rival is Liverpool, who occupy the fourth position with just one more point.
Southampton, although it does not make a brilliant campaign, is an adversary that can be considered uncomfortable for the accomplishment of that objective. Tottenham have missed important points in their dominance against similar rivals. So he appears only as the sixth best entrant of the 2017/2018 season. He accumulated 18 (five wins, three draws and one loss) of the possible 27.
In the previous competition of the English Championship, while still playing games at White Heart Lane, Tottenham had the best home performance of the tournament. After his stadium was demolished to build a more modern, he has not achieved the same numbers at Wembley, much closer to a neutral field.
The current form of Southampton
The horns are already starting to sound in St. Mary’s in the first season of Argentine coach Mauricio Pellegrino. Having drawn the attention of the Southampton top scorers by taking Alavés to the title match of the 2016/2017 King of Spain Cup, lost to Barcelona, he has failed to achieve the expected results.
In the last ten matches, the team has only won once. He drew four chances and suffered five defeats. Not even the most optimistic expected Southampton to be in the top positions, but thirteenth at the end of the first round certainly is a result below what could be produced. The team had 19 points (four wins, seven draws and eight losses). It is the third in number of equalities in the Premier League.
The visitor campaign is even worse. In eight games, the team only returned home with three more points in the baggage on one occasion. He is thus the sixth worst Premier League visitor with six points (one win, three draws and four losses) accumulated from the 24 played.
Pellegrino left his mark on Alavés because of the strong defensive system he built. In Southampton, the industry has even achieved acceptable results. It has been leaked 25 times. Number less than the first placed, but better than four teams that are ahead in the standings. The biggest problem has been offensive production. The team scored only 18 goals, averaging less than one per game. Of the top 15 placed, only the Brighton (15) has less swung the networks of the rivals. Still, it has two more points than Southampton.
History of matches
Tottenham got the better of their last two matches against Southampton.
Although Tottenham have shown many difficulties throughout the season to overcome well-placed defenses such as Southampton, it still appears as the biggest favorite for Tuesday’s duel known as Boxing Day. It has a price of 1.35 in Rivalo. Draw shows return of 5.00 and successful visitor yields 8.00 per invested real.