FOOTBALL LONDON
Cristian Stellini has selected an unchanged team for Tottenham’s Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon but Richarlison returns to the bench.
Spurs dropped out of the top four on Wednesday evening as Newcastle United and Manchester United moved three points ahead by winning one of their games in hand. Stellini’s men must return to winning ways if they want to retain hope of securing Champions League football for a second consecutive season.
Brighton are also in the race for a top-four finish after a fine run of form under Roberto De Zerbi. Victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would move the Seagulls to within a point of Tottenham in the table, with two games in hand still to play in the run-in.
Stellini admitted this week that it’s difficult to change his line-up much because of the sheer number of injuries in the squad and now Lucas Moura’s suspension. However, Richarlison has made a return to the bench following his calf injury.
Missing are Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur and those absent full-backs makes it near impossible to switch to a back four unless Clement Lenglet was awkwardly shoved into a left-back role.
One option would have been switching to a 3-5-2 but that would mean sacrificing one of Son Heung-min or Dejan Kulusevski for Pape Matar Sarr. Another option was to bring Arnaut Danjuma in as one of the front three but Stellini’s answer on Thursday on the Netherlands international did not exactly inspire anyone hoping to see him play.
Here is the team Stellini has selected, with youngsters Alfie Devine and Romaine Mundle on the bench once again.
Lloris; Romero, Dier, Lenglet; Porro, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Kulusevski, Kane, Son. Subs: Forster, Austin, Sanchez, Tanganga, Mundle, Sarr, Devine, Danjuma, Richarlison.
