Tottenham vs Chelsea

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

4:30pm

A fixture of huge significance, one for the Blues to cement their place at the top and send signals to the rest of the contenders, and maybe the pretenders, by the way they play one of them in this fixture, Tottenham who must prove as well that they’re not a spent force after last week’s humbling.

Tottenham Hotspur host Chelsea on Sunday and it’s all about Nuno Espirito Santo showing he has what it takes to get Spurs to compete in the league and as well as Europe where they represent the Premier League in the newly formed European Conference League.

Spurs lost scandalously to Crystal Palace last weekend, they lost points as well as two players – Eric Dier early on to injury and then Japhet Tanganga to a silly red card; Spurs went to in midweek and settled for a point, then lost two players to injury again with Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn limping off.

Chelsea are up there with the best in world football and not just premier league, they have it all in them to go all the way in the champions league and still fight for the league title as well, the manager is tinkering, the team is ticking, the trip across London will be an interesting one.

Tottenham felt what life without Harry Kane would look like in the loss to the Eagles, for once in his career he failed to have a single shot on target at Palace and he didn’t do anything extraordinary away at Rennes, he has a chance to win hearts over again when the Blues visit.

On Thursday evening, Kane broke Tottenham's club record of appearances in European competition, making his 65th outing to surpass Steve Perryman. More club targets are within reach given that it was 10 years last month since he made his debut for Spurs;

He's third on their all-time goal scorers list with 166, just 10 behind Bobby Smith and perhaps two more prolific seasons away from overtaking record holder Jimmy Greaves' 220.

Incidentally, Chelsea have not lost to Spurs in any of their last five meetings but Spurs enjoyed fine results against the Blues in the past, if you’re only as good as your last game then there’s so much to worry about for the hosts.

Spurs led the league after three games but are now in danger of dropping out of the top ten if they lose to Chelsea as they could slip to 8^th, putting them under pressure for next weekend’s fixtures.

How will they line up? Chelsea could recall Reece James after serving his ban and Romelu Lukaku is untouchable upfield, there will be some adjustments in the middle but they should have what they require to see out Spurs.

Tottenham will have to find replacements for their missing players, they may have to call on Romero who only recently returned from quarantine and Tanguy Ndombele who was an outcast but had a run in during the stalemate at Rennes.

Verdict: Chelsea to win