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Tottenham Hotspur return to Premier League action as they welcome already-relegated Sheffield United to north London this evening.

Ryan Mason’s side will be looking to bounce back from a tough week, which ended in another final loss after being defeated by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup last Sunday.

The 29-year-old has plenty to ponder in terms of team selection and whilst a top-four berth appears out of reach, Spurs could still qualify for the Europa League once again but it is games like this that they must secure maximum points.

So, what sort of side could we see the interim boss select at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight? Here’s our predicted XI as well as the latest team and injury news heading into kick-off…

We’re predicting there to be as many as four changes to the side that tasted defeat at Wembley a week ago.

In his pre-game press conference, Mason revealed that he had no fresh injury concerns and that Ben Davies would still be out through injury, so he has the exact same options to choose from.

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He also claimed that Matt Doherty had been back in training all week, so he could well come back into the starting XI, taking the place of Serge Aurier, who last week was lambasted as “one of the biggest liabilities in the Premier League” by Jamie Carragher.

That echoed the thoughts of Darren Bent who once dubbed the £18m-rated star a “liability.”

We could expect to see Joe Rodon in contention once again as he was cup-tied for the final and was not played against Southampton last week as Mason wanted his defensive pairing to be settled, though bringing him in for Eric Dier could be a decent switch to make.

The pair will be joined by Toby Alderweireld and Sergio Reguilon, who both keep their place in front of Hugo Lloris.

Another change could come in midfield, with Tanguy Ndombele likely to replace Harry Winks as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s partner, whilst Lucas Moura comes back into the no.10 role from out wide.

Gareth Bale might be the fourth and final change as he replaces Giovani Lo Celso in attack and both Heung-min Son and Harry Kane are more than likely to start.

AND in other news, Spurs must land perfect Kane replacement in “special” £36m-rated goal-machine…

Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side have been dealt a late injury setback ahead of this afternoon’s Premiership Old Firm meeting with Rangers.

What’s the latest?

Speaking in his pre-match press conference (via Celtic), the Bhoys boss revealed that James Forrest will not be available for selection on Sunday afternoon, as the winger has been unable to recover from a knock picked up in his last outing.

Regarding the 30-year-old’s current condition, the Greek-Australian manager said: “The only one who is not available for the weekend is James Forrest. He still has a bit of a niggle from his last game, so he’s the one that’s ruled out.”

Postecoglou will be gutted

While Forrest has not exactly been a guaranteed starter at Celtic since Postecoglou’s arrival at the club last summer, the news that the forward is not fit to face Rangers will nevertheless have come as a gutting blow to the 56-year-old and his side.

Indeed, the £5.4m-rated man has been a devastating player in the Hoops attack over the past decade, scoring an incredibly impressive 97 goals and registering 97 assists over 440 appearances for the club.

Furthermore, although he has only started 16 fixtures in all competitions this season, the £20k-per-week Scotland international has still scored some important goals for Celtic in 2021/22, none less so than his winner against St Johnstone in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.

As such, while it would have been unlikely that Forrest would have been given the nod from the off this afternoon, the 30-year-old’s unavailability will certainly come as a huge blow to Celtic’s chances of leaving Ibrox with all three points – with a victory in Govan all but securing the Premiership title for Postecoglou’s outfit.

AND in other news: Ange starts £52.5k-p/w ace & 22y/o who has his chest “puffed out”: Predicted Celtic XI

Steven Gerrard has been consistently linked to making moves in the transfer window on many of his former players at Rangers since joining Premier League side, Aston Villa in November.

What’s the story?

Villa have suffered a devastating injury blow in their midfield with Marvelous Nakamba being sidelined for at least two months with a serious knee injury.

This will give the Villans boss a headache, as Nakamba has been a revelation under his new manager.

During Gerrard’s first game in charge against Brighton, he completed an impressive 94.2% of his passes and has consistently performed at that level all the way into his last home game at Villa Park before he got injured, completing 93% of his passes in the 2-1 victory over Leicester.

However, the Villa manager may have already identified his Nakamba replacement in a player he used to manage at Rangers.

Glen Kamara has been tearing it up at Ibrox over the last few years, playing an integral part in the SPFL Champion’s invincible season under Gerrard, with the midfielder adding two goals and two assists to the side’s success.

He has continued to be influential under his new manager, Gio van Bronckhorst, with 25 appearances, one goal and four assists for the title-challenging side from his defensive midfield role.

Gerrard has a clear vision for his Aston Villa future and will be looking to add players who fit his vision, with 90min reporting that Kamara is the prime target for the former Rangers boss.

Kamara was hailed a “special talent” by his former manager at Dundee, Neil McCann, who was full of praise for the 26-year-old in an interview with The Athletic.

There is no doubt that Kamara thrives under Gerrard’s management and coaching, so it would seem like a very easy transition for the midfielder to come to the Premier League and join his former boss at Villa Park.

The 41-year-old manager will be looking for a quick fix solution to the hole that Nakamba will leave in the midfield, especially with his aforementioned pass completion statistics that will surely be missed in builds of play coming from the middle of the pitch.

Kamara could be a great solution with his experience working under Gerrard successfully, and at a great price as the £21k-per-week earner could be reportedly available for Villa to move in with a good offer, relieving Gerrard of the worries and pressure over Nakamba’s return from injury. Based on that, it would ensure Villa start the January transfer window with a bang.

In other news: Gerrard must offload Wesley

Rangers managed to reclaim their spot at the top of the Scottish Premiership table as they beat Hibernian 2-1 on Sunday.

Kevin Nisbet headed Hibs in front in the opening 10 minutes before Ryan Porteous was sent off in the 30th minute for a poor challenge on Joe Aribo.

The Gers were able to find the leveller in the 60th minute as Nathan Patterson put the ball on a plate for Kemar Roofe to nod home at the back post. Alfredo Morelos then won the match with his goal, assisted by Borna Barisic, in the 78th minute.

Roofe and Morelos may steal the headlines with their goals, but one player who was an unsung hero in the midfield was summer signing John Lundstram. He found a balance between defensive ballast and impressive play in possession to put in an all-around brilliant display.

Defensively, he was almost faultless for Rangers. Per SofaScore, he made four tackles, three interceptions and one block. He also won 62.5% of his duels on the pitch in the game, winning five of his eight 50/50 battles against Hibernian players.

This shows that he was able to snuff out Hibernian attacks with his defensive awareness and strength. He did not allow the opposition to pass by him easily, which allowed Rangers to dominate the game – contributing to the final result.

On the ball, he was composed and assured in possession to maintain the dominance. Per SofaScore, he had an eye-catching 118 touches of the ball – completing 99 of his 104 attempted passes (95%) and only giving the ball away six times from all of those touches.

Lundstram was efficient with his passing and did not give the ball away on a regular basis. Not only did this stop Hibernian from gaining the ball, but it also allowed Rangers to pile the pressure on the opposition goal and tire the midfield, which then created space for the Gers to work with.

Therefore, the midfield beast was Gerrard’s unsung hero in the match as he did the dirty work so that the forward players could shine in possession of the ball.

Hopefully, the summer arrival from Sheffield United will continue to perform to these standards and maintain his place in the starting XI to improve Gerrard’s side, which is – presumably – why he was brought to the club.

AND in other news, Gerrard masterclass: Rangers beast has seen his value soar 33.3% in less than 2 years…

Some Arsenal fans have been left to slam the display of Granit Xhaka in the first half of their game away at Burnley in the Premier League, after he made a bizarre error to gift the hosts an equaliser.

The central midfield player was guilty of giving the ball away quite cheaply on a number of different occasions for the Emirates Stadium faithful, which eventually resulted in a quite ridiculous goal for Chris Wood.

The Switzerland international does sometimes takes a lot of risks in terms of keeping hold of the ball for too long or trying some ambitious passes, which can lead to him giving up possession to his opponents, and he played a ball across goal into the midriff of the New Zealand international, which ricocheted into the net.

Gunners supporters fumed at his performance in the first half of the match, and Mikel Arteta will be hoping that the 28-year-old can put that blunder behind him and recover after the break.

Arsenal fan reaction to Xhaka’s first-half display

These Gooners slammed his first-half performance on Twitter, with one AFC fan even going as far to claim that he is ‘useless’:

“#BURARS good chance for a breakaway, but, no, #xhaka side wards, backwards…”

Credit: @chudds007

“Xhaka starting to lose possession.”

Credit: @FRANXICAN

“Xhaka is useless stop defending stupid players”

Credit: @olalekan_ab

“Xhaka is so negative with going forward its a joke. Definitely glad we bought a forward thinking player in Partey”

Credit: @jed_i_diah

“Xhaka error, normal thing.”

Credit: @TayoSays

“Again. What’s with Xhaka’s bad habit to pull back when we’re breaking forward?”

Credit: @Arsenal_LINY

In other news, find out whose display was slammed against Leicester City here!

After suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat in his first game in charge of Sheffield Wednesday against Rotherham, Darren Moore saw his side swept away 3-0 by Reading in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.

The Owls did themselves no favours when Julian Borner was sent off for a challenge as the last man, with Michael Olise stepping up to score the resulting spot kick.

Goals from Lucas Joao and Andy Yiadom in the second half compounded Wednesday’s misery, with the Yorkshire side now having lost six Championship games in a row.

However, while Borner will undoubtedly be the man to criticise after the game as the scores were level at 0-0 before his red card, Kadeem Harris produced a woeful display and badly let his manager down.

After being dropped to the bench for Moore’s first game in charge of the side against Rotherham, Harris was restored to the starting line-up for the clash at the Madejski Stadium.

The right-winger just couldn’t justify his manager’s faith in him, though,struggling to really pick out the right passes when in promising positions and getting muscled off it far too easily – as per Sofascore, he lost four out of his five duels on the day.

Harris attempted no shots on goal and failed to complete any of his three attempted dribbles, and that rather summed up his efforts in an attacking sense – even centre-back Tom Lees managed two efforts on goal, as per Sofascore.

Writing in his post-match player ratings, Dom Howson gave Harris a four, noting: “Moore restored the wide man to the starting XI but Harris was not at the races. Lost possession on multiple occasions and too often his decision making let him down in the final third.”

While Borner’s red card will take the headlines, Harris’ ineffective performance really cost his manager on Saturday against the Royals after being given the nod to start.

Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford could be fit for the final two Premier League games of the season despite initial fears he would not return this campaign.

The Lowdown: Bamford’s torrid season

The 28-year-old was arguably the Whites’ star man last season, scoring 17 league goals, but things have panned out very differently this time around.

Bamford has been hampered by injury problems throughout the campaign, being limited to just seven league starts, which has played a part in the Whites’ struggles.

The striker is currently out with a foot injury which was initially expected to make him miss the rest of the campaign, but Jesse Marsch has revealed he could now miss just the next three weeks.

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The Latest: Hay shares good news

Providing his thoughts in a Q&A for The Athletic on Monday ahead of Leeds’ trip to Crystal Palace, Phil Hay claimed that Bamford could return for the last two league games of the season, which are at home to Brighton and away to Brentford.

The journalist shared a prospective return date from the Whites manager which essentially means missing the next three weeks, claiming:

“Still no Patrick Bamford [v Palace] but Jesse Marsch thinks he might make it back for the last two games of the season.”

[freshpress-quiz id=“383507″]

The Verdict: Could be massive for Leeds

This is a potentially huge boost for Leeds, as they find themselves in danger of getting sucked back into a relegation battle between themselves, Everton and Burnley.

Bamford’s finishing ability means that just one chance could be needed in one of those final two matches, should Marsch’s side still not be safe at that point.

In many ways, the hope is that Leeds have avoided relegation by then and Bamford doesn’t need to be risked, but having him in contention would feel significant, providing the Whites with proven Premier League firepower.

In other news, Hay has dropped a Leeds transfer claim. Read more here.

West Brom received yet another thrashing as their miserable season continued at the hands of Arsenal at the Hawthorns on Saturday night.

The chances of Sam Allardyce keeping the Baggies up is looking worse and worse by the week, so his impressive record of never having a relegation on his lengthy CV is surely in serious jeopardy.

Albion have now been mauled in three of their four matches under the 66-year-old – they were well-beaten by arch-rivals Villa 3-0 and last time out they were walloped 5-0 by Leeds United.

Now the Gunners have come to the Midlands and stuck another four goals past them.

They now have the worst defensive record in the league, comfortably, having leaked a whopping 39 goals in 17 games – some six attempts more than the next.

Many supporters were quick to criticise Romaine Sawyers’ performance, and whilst he may well not be up to the standard of the Premier League, there were other players who were more at fault for this capitulation.

One claimed that the 28-year-old wouldn’t even get into his old Walsall team, another accused him of not passing forwards, whilst there was even a suggestion that the midfielder shirked any responsibility.

Although the statistics say otherwise, SofaScore handed him a 6.6 rating, which was better than five other Baggies players.

Dara O’Shea was heavily involved in the game from an Albion perspective, recording a squad-high 79 touches, more than the likes of Conor Gallagher and Matheus Pereira.

Yet, he was rather lightweight and wasteful with the ball – he lost possession a match-high 26 times, made just 58% of his 48 passing attempts, and was dribbled past on one occasion, via SofaScore.

The 21-year-old Irishman is still relatively inexperienced, especially at this level, so it’s no wonder that Mikel Arteta opted to target him through the inclusion of Bukayo Saka on the right flank.

Perhaps if Albion weren’t down to the barebones heading into January, then O’Shea would benefit from a loan spell away to gain more experience.

But he was trusted to start at left-back over Lee Peltier and the vastly-experienced Matty Phillips, so he has badly betrayed his manager’s faith here too.

He was one of many who were abysmal on Saturday night.

AND in other news, Ideye 2.0: West Brom must avoid “foolish” Big Sam fave who once “spat his dummy out”…

Former Leeds United striker and current BBC Radio Leeds commentator Noel Whelan has launched a scathing attack on Ezgjan Alioski following his performance against Brighton.

The Whites were beaten 2-0 at the Amex Stadium on Saturday afternoon on a disappointing day for Marcelo Bielsa’s side. Having taken five points from matches against Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United, the defeat saw them slip to 11th in the Premier League table.

Someone who was a “liability” all afternoon was Alioski, who had an erratic day at the office, playing a key role in the defeat and rarely looking settled. His clumsy foul on Danny Welbeck gave Pascal Gross the chance to open the scoring with a penalty, while he won only three of his nine duels and lost possession 10 times (Sofascore).

Whelan criticises ‘diabolical’ Alioski

Speaking to Football Insider, Whelan laid into the left-back, claiming performances such as these show why he will likely leave Elland Road this summer amid reports that he has rejected a new contract, urging DoF Victor Orta to ‘go into the market’:

“Alioski was diabolical to be quite honest with you.

“The free-kick, where he is trying to get a megs in the wrong area, that was his first mistake. The second mistake was back to the Alioski of old.

“I’ve been impressed with him over the last three games. I thought he did really well and learned how to defend up against the likes of Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood but against Brighton he reverted to his old style. We saw that weakness on the left-hand side again.

“The challenge on Welbeck was rash, stupid and unnecessary. It gave them the platform that they needed.

“The right thing was to take him off, 100 per cent. He was a liability.  Another game which highlighted our need to go into the market for a left-back.”

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Transfer Tavern take

There has always been an overly emotional, unpredictable side to Alioski’s game – one which has made him something of a loose cannon – and that came to the fore against Brighton.

While he has undoubtedly done well at Leeds overall – he has contributed 22 goals and 17 assists in 167 appearances – they can upgrade on him in the summer transfer window, bringing in a more reliable left-back, such as the recently-linked Nicolas Tagliafico.

If Bielsa’s men want to have European aspirations next season, having consistent, reliable figures throughout the team is vital, and Orta’s first job this summer should be finding a star at left-back for Bielsa – fitting square pegs in round holes can only get you so far.

In other news, a pundit has offered an encouraging update on the future of one Leeds United star. Find out who it is here.

Leeds United are reportedly showing genuine interest in signing  Brest winger Romain Faivre, but other big clubs are also interested.

The Lowdown: Past interest in Faivre

Marcelo Bielsa is expected to make additions to his squad in the summer transfer window in order to ensure that they keep improving next season.

The Whites have been linked with a move for Faivre in recent months, with the 22-year-old scoring six goals and registering five assists in Ligue 1 this season.

The Latest: Leeds in the race for winger

According to Le Parisien [via Sport Witness], Leeds are showing ‘concrete interest’ in signing Faivre at the end of the season, but they aren’t alone in that respect.

Both Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund are also in the mix, along with AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Monchengladbach.

It is claimed that Leeds will have to pay between €15m and €20m (£12.95m-£17.26m) to acquire the Frenchman’s signature.

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The Verdict: Worth a punt?

Faivre might not the most high-profile name with whom Leeds have been linked, but his statistics suggest that he could thrive in this Whites team.

On top of his aforementioned 11 goal contributions in the league, he also averages 2.6 dribbles per game, highlighting his direct nature. That’s comfortably more than any Leeds player in the Premier League in 2020/21, with Raphinha (1.9) leading the way, going to show what an exciting acquisition he could be.

Indeed, the Brazilian was a left-field £17m signing from Ligue 1 outfit Rennes and has gone on to excel in Yorkshire, so the Whites could strike a similarly successful note with another raid on the French top flight if they sign Faivre.

In other news, one pundit has tipped a Leeds attacker to leave the club at the end of the season. Find out who it is here.