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Manchester United travel to White Hart Lane for a crucial clash against 3rd place Tottenham Hotspur, looking to take all three points, to keep up with leaders Manchester City.
United come into this eagerly anticipated league clash in some extremely good form. In their last six games in the Premiership, MUFC have taken sixteen points out of a possible eighteen, with the only game they dropped points was against Chelsea, in which they came from three goals down to draw at Stamford Bridge.
Spurs on the other hand aren’t in the best of form, but overall the White Hart Lane outfit have had a stunning season, and have been rewarded with an extremely strong 3rd place in the table. Tottenham have only won two games of their last six, and come into the game of the back of a sinking defeat in the North London derby at the Emirates.
Spurs have a few selection problems, with new England Captain Scott Parker suspended after being sent off in the defeat against Arsenal last week. Kyle Walker withdrew from the game at Arsenal with an ankle injury and subsequently pulled out of the England squad for the midweek game against Holland.
Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart also pulled out of international duty with an ankle injury and Gareth Bale didn’t play for his national team either after suffering a hamstring problem. Walker, van der Vaart and Bale are all doubts for the game while both William Gallas and Tom Huddlestone are out.
Manchester United have a few injury problems themselves, but the big news is that Wayne Rooney has trained all week and is expected to play at White Hart Lane after missing two games with a throat infection. Chris Smalling is a doubt for the game after picking up a nasty head wound on international duty, but Tom Cleverley and Antonio Valencia are still out. Michael Owen is back in training, but he isn’t ready to return just yet.
“It’s going to be a massive game. If we can survive that one, then we’ll have a big, big chance of winning the league.” Sir Alex Ferguson stated.
Manchester United haven’t lost at White Hart Lane in their last ten games there, with 7 victories and 3 draws being picked up in that time. MUFC have scored 20 goals in that period, with Spurs scoring seven.
My team prediction (Manchester United): De Gea, Rafael, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Young, Rooney, Welbeck.
Written by Yusuf Khan
https://twitter.com/#!/YusufSmileyKhan
