A couple of wins seemed to have lifted the gloom over The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Bournemouth are plenty capable of upsetting their applecart again.
By Ian King
Midweek wobbles and wavering form
Three steps forward, two steps back. It looked as though Spurs had turned a corner with three straight Premier League wins, but supine defeats to Manchester City and AZ have thoroughly eliminated that brittle optimism. What was most concerning about their performance in Alkmaar was how passive they were in a match of such clear significance for their season.
So this is not an ideal time to be playing highish-flying Bournemouth, although they too have had a little wobble recently. They booked a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals last weekend with a penalty shootout win against Wolves, though this came off the back of consecutive League defeats against Wolves and Brighton. They’re still in touch with a Champions League place, and European football for next season remains an entirely achievable ambition.
History
Prior to Bournemouth’s first promotion into the Premier League in 2015, these two clubs had only ever met once before. That came such a long time ago – February 1957, to be precise – that AFC Bournemouth were still called Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, and Bournemouth won 3-1 in the FA Cup Fifth Round. Spurs have won ten of their 15 meetings since 2015, but Bournemouth won 1-0 when they met earlier this season.
Key players
Arguably the most worrying thing about Spurs’ recent dip is that they’ve gone two games without scoring, when this team hasn’t previously had too much of a problem scoring goals for much of the season. The lack of creativity against both Manchester City and AZ was clearly evident. Heung Min Son seemed furious following the AZ match, but the team needs his goals if they’re to get through this encounter unscathed. Bournemouth’s fluidity has impressed all season, and Justin Kluivert has been a critical cog in their engine. His pace, movement and intelligence is an obvious threat to a Spurs defence which has looked rickety at times this season.
Team News
Spurs may have thought that their injury issues were resolving themselves, but the sight of former-Bournemouth man Dominic Solanke walking off against AZ in pain and clutching his back is an obvious concern. Dejan Kulusevski will also be missing, though Richarlison, Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven could return. For Bournemouth, Adam Smith, Marcos Senesi and Enes Ünal are all injured, while Illia Zabarnyi remains suspended after being sent off in their Premier League game against Wolves.
Prediction
Following a couple of insipid performances, Spurs need to get back to winning ways. They’ve lost a lot of the momentum they were starting to build. And although Bournemouth have lost three of their last four Premier League games, they’re only four points off a Champions League place so arguably have more to play for than the home side in this particular fixture. I’m going for a 2-1 Bournemouth win which everyone will think was a huge surprise but which wasn’t, really.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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