Manchester United will attempt the erase the memory of last Sunday’s woeful defeat to Brighton when they welcome Tottenham to Old Trafford tonight.
A 3-2 defeat at the Amex Stadium has seen pressure grow on manager Jose Mourinho with the spotlight once again focused on his relationship with Paul Pogba, who has captained his side in their two opening matches of the season.
Tottenham have had their share of distractions too after their move to the new stadium at White Hart Lane was delayed, but at least these have been limited to off-the-field issues.
While the north Londoners still don’t know when they will be able to move into their new home, it has been business as usual for Mauricio Pochettino on the pitch with Spurs taking two wins from two so far this term – with Harry Kane already ending his August hoodoo.
Head to head
This will be the 190th meeting between the two Premier League giants. As you might expect, United have historically dominated the fixture, winning 90 of their past meetings with Spurs taking 51 wins.
Team news
Alex Sanchez missed United’s 3-2 defeat to Brighton on Sunday with his manager predicting the knock would rule him out for “one or two weeks maximum.”
The Chile international has since returned to training, offering hope of him returning to the starting XI on Monday.
Antonio Valencia, Nemanja Matic and Jesse Lingard all returned to full first-team training late last week with the latter coming off the bench against Brighton. Both Valencia and Matic are expected to be in contention to return against Spurs.
South Korea’s progress to the quarter-finals of the Asian Games means that Heung-min Son is still unavailable as he is on international duty, while Victor Wanyama remains sidelined as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.
Juan Foyth, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Josh Onomah continue their recoveries from knocks but Harry Winks is back in full training.
Hugo Lloris is expected to keep his place in goal despite being charged with drink driving last week, but could yet be stripped of the Tottenham captaincy.
Possible starting XIs…
Manchester United: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Pogba, Fred, Mata, Lukaku, Sanchez
Tottenham: Lloris, Trippier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Davies, Dembele, Dier, Eriksen, Alli, Kane
