EPL: Red Devils, Spurs ignite Manchester

Man U vs. Tottenham
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick off:12:30PM

Manchester United head into their Premier League showdown with Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford looking to avoid extending their winless streak in the top flight to three matches.
As for Spurs, Mauricio Pochettino’s team make the trip to the North-West looking to move clear of United in the standings and reduce the gap on leaders Manchester City to two points.
After witnessing his side lose out to Huddersfield Town last weekend, manager Jose Mourinho was quick to criticise the attitude of his players as the club slipped five points adrift of leaders Manchester City, and it leaves United in a position where they dare not drop more points in the top flight at this stage of the season.
United got what they played for at Liverpool – a goalless draw – but the setback at the John Smith’s Stadium has left Mourinho and his players likely having to find a way of claiming a minimum of four points from games against Spurs and Chelsea just to stay in contention with City.
Their poor form comes at a time when the goals have started to dry up for Romelu Lukaku – who has gone 297 minutes without finding the back of the net – and when chief creator Henrikh Mkhitaryan has not set up a goal since the end of August.
United are making headway in the cup competitions, but defeat to Spurs may leave United eight points off the pace come 5pm on Saturday and even at the end of October, that might prove too much to overhaul.
At half time against West Ham United on Wednesday night, everything was going swimmingly for Spurs ahead of their trip to The Theatre of Dreams, but now Pochettino must now deal with his side letting slip a two-goal lead to a team bereft of confidence.
Pochettino may point to the fact that the EFL Cup was the lowest of their priorities this season, but that result will sting the Argentine and he now must find a way of helping his players recover for one of the biggest games of their campaign at less than 72 hours notice.
The setback was in stark contrast to the ruthlessness which Spurs showed in their 4-1 demolition against Liverpool last weekend. Harry Kane chipped in with two more goals, but the performance of Son Heung-son showed Pochettino the kind of quality he had been keeping in reserve during most of the first two months of the season.

Man U possible XI: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Smalling, Young, Matic, Herrera, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Rashford, Lukaku.
Tottenham possible XI: Lloris, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Trippier, Dier, Winks, Davies, Eriksen, Alli, Kane.