The Premier League is back in the wake of a chaotic FA Cup third round last weekend, and not a minute too soon. The English top flight is considered to be one of the very best divisions in world football, and it’s kind of hard to argue against that point. Of course, you get the occasional bad game here and there, but we’d argue that the majority provide fans with the kind of entertainment that you’d expect from this level of football. Of course, we may be a little bit biased, and it’s hard to disagree with that statement once you feast your eyes upon this weekend’s offering.

The main game to look forward to will be taking place at the home of English football – Wembley Stadium. Tottenham Hotspur will take on Manchester United in a game that, in many ways, could set the stage for how both teams perform throughout the remainder of the season. It’s the kind of encounter in which you’re just expecting to see some great football being played, and that’s what we’re hoping for. Sure, there’s a chance both teams will be more reserved than we’re anticipating, but we think they’re going to go for it.

Times are particularly interesting at Spurs, with their botched stadium move casting a major shadow over the good work they’ve been able to do on the pitch this season. Of course, people probably won’t think about that in the years to come, which can only be a good thing. The club are still hanging on in the Champions League, they’re on the verge of reaching the Carabao Cup final, and some fans believe they’ve got an outside chance of challenging for the Premier League title. In all honesty, you can’t hope for much more than that as a fan of the club.

On the other hand you’ve got Manchester United, who have experienced something of a resurgence under the tutelage of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The temporary boss has been on fire at Old Trafford, guiding them to five straight wins. There’s a good chance that he’s going to head back to Norway once the season is over but if he can keep on winning with the Red Devils, and potentially even reach a cup final, then we’d say there’s a chance the club change their mind and wind up appointing him as their next permanent boss.

Tottenham have been fairly emphatic in their last six games, scoring an incredible 23 goals and conceding just five (with four clean sheets thrown in there too). They kicked off this most recent run with a 6-2 demolition of Everton, before sticking five past Bournemouth. They went on to lose a bit of a shocker against Wolverhampton Wanderers, but that seems to be nothing more than an abnormality. They bounced back with a 3-0 win over Cardiff before taking Tranmere Rovers apart 7-0 in the FA Cup, and most recently, they defeated Chelsea 1-0 in the Carabao Cup to give themselves a huge advantage heading into the second leg.

United kicked off this last six game stretch with the end of an era, as their 3-1 loss to bitter rivals Liverpool signalled the end of Jose Mourinho’s time at the club. Then, in Ole’s first game at the helm, they tore through his former club Cardiff City 5-1. That was followed up by 3-1 and 4-1 wins over Huddersfield and Bournemouth respectively, with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United confirming that he is, in fact, the real deal. They went on to defeat Reading 2-0 in the FA Cup, but as we all know, this will be easily his biggest test to date.

With their first meeting taking place way back in 1899, it should hardly come as a surprise for fans to learn that these two sides are pretty familiar with one another. United lead the overall head to head standings 90-52 with 48 draws, which are the kind of figures you’d expect given how dominant they’ve been in English football over the years. In their last meeting back in August, though, Spurs were able to prove to the world that they were going to be contenders this season with a magnificent 3-0 win at Old Trafford.

Tottenham are set to analyse the fitness of Lucas Moura ahead of this one, with some speculating that it’ll be a game day decision. His knee injury ensured that he missed out on the clash with Chelsea, with a fitness test standing between him and a role in this game. Wanyama and Dier are still on the sidelines, whereas Vertonghen and Dembele are back in training. Unfortunately it still doesn’t seem like the latter two stars will be recovered enough in time to feature, but it shouldn’t be long until they’re back in the mix.

An issue with Paul Pogba’s leg ensured that he missed the game against Reading, but now, he’s back and ready to serve as the leading light for the Red Devils in this game. Marcos Rojo has returned home due to his injury taking longer than was first expected to recover from, with Chris Smalling also being a doubt. This will also be the final game of Eric Bailly’s suspension, but even with the aforementioned players being set to miss out, it really does feel like Solskjaer has a strong enough side to choose from as they attempt to pull off what many would consider to be an upset win.

Tottenham vs Manchester United Betting Prediction

We’re going to go out on a limb here and suggest that, from a quality perspective, this is going to be one of the best games of the season so far. There’s so much talent within the ranks of both these teams that it’s almost impossible to picture anything but a classic. We’re expecting United to try and intimidate Spurs and get in their face from the word go, but we can’t imagine that’ll faze them. We actually think the home side will take the lead pretty early on, before scoring a second just before half time.

OGS will re-group at the interval, and United will pull one back to ensure a thrilling second half. The visitors will push and push before getting hit on the counter, with Tottenham scoring a third to really kill the game off.

It’ll be seen as a negative result for United, obviously, but there will be positives to take from it. You can’t expect Solskjaer to win every single game that he manages and he doesn’t need to, because he’s already managed to bring the feel good vibe back to the club. That, in itself, is an achievement, whereas Spurs have a lot more to play for this season.

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