Spurs Vs Wolves Preview

The main difference between this season and last season has been not conceding the first goal every week.

Aside from the miracle turnaround at Villa Park we still haven’t looked great when chasing games.

Last night was no exception. Plenty of pressure and good intentions after falling behind but never really looking likely to pick the lock.

Leaning on our defensive resilience and catching teams out when the game is stretched is our best chance with the players at our disposal and that will again be the plan in the second leg of our North London double header on Sunday.

Spurs

It started well for Antonio Conte but an iffy January window and back-to-back league defeats have dampened some of the enthusiasm.

As it is for Arsenal, West Ham and Man Utd, none of these teams are continually excelling so it’s all very much to play for in the hunt for Champions League football.

Scored 28 and conceded 27 underlines the problem – not particularly prolific or defensively robust.

It’s all just a bit ‘meh’ and that’s the challenge facing Conte, to shape this team and give them some sort of meaningful identity.

A few more goals from Harry Kane would help and with just five on the board in the league this season he’s fallen well short of previously high standards.

Wolves

We missed João Moutinho against Arsenal and I hope he’s fit enough for consideration on Sunday.

Chiquinho probably did enough to suggest he could be worthy of a start but may be better from the bench in what could be a bit of a chess match.

I’m not sure why Marcal was suddenly in the team last night but Ait-Nouri should return for this one. It would be great to see Jonny get some minutes, even if it’s just a short cameo from bench.

I found Podence’s performance infuriating against Arsenal and he needs to focus more on the basics than always going for the Hollywood moment in areas of the pitch it’s ill-advisable. If Hwang was fit enough to start, I’d be putting him in, but it’s probably too soon even if he recovers from his back spasm.

Last time out

Deli Alli won and scored a slightly dodgy penalty at Molineux earlier in the season to give them the victory on Nuno’s return. We should have got something from that game. It was another tight contest in the League Cup but again Spurs edged it on penalties after Wolves fought back from two goals down to level the tie.

They also won 2-0 in this fixture last season and probably should have increased that margin as Wolves were limping to the finish line by that point.

Predictions

Well done to AussieWolf, Chesterwolf and Steppenwolfe for all getting a maximum by correctly predicting a 1-0 defeat against Arsenal.

Cannock Wolf leads the way at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 22.

As always, if you’d like to join in, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.

You can read my prediction for the game in the comment section below.

Up The Wolves!

Polite request – when commenting in the preview article after the game has finished, can you not place score predictions in the boxes, please? It confuses the system. Many thanks.