‘Tottenham’s lifeline’ is how the media reported West Ham’s big defeat to Brentford yesterday. Spurs need to go to Villa Park and win in order to climb back above West Ham in the Premier League with just three games remaining.
The unknown quantity is how seriously Unai Emery will take the contest this evening as his Villa side are playing Spurs just 72 hours after their Europa League semi final first leg. The second leg is next Thursday so Emery would be within his rights to rest several of his first choice, no doubt jaded players.
Aston Villa sit in fifth place within the Premier League at present, six points ahead of Brentford so unlikely to be caught- again it would be easy to understand the Villans prioritising their semi final.
Which doesn’t help West Ham who will be desperate to see their relegation rivals lose this evening.
The one player specifically highlighted as being ‘crucial‘ to Tottenham’s creative play could well still be out injured, but Jamie Redknapp is convinced that, if they can just get him on the pitch he could be a game changer.
on a long road to recovery – Tottenham’s game changer James Maddison
Spurs fan site spurs-web.com confirmed the contrast between the two relegation rivals:
“I think one thing that they [Spurs] are completely devoid of, and even more so without Xavi Simons, is any creativity. When I look at Tottenham everything is chaotic -there’s no real calmness about how they play.”
“If they get Maddison in amongst it, he is what they need right now” said Redknapp. Maddison has been absent since August of last year with an ACL tear but has been named in the last two game day squads, leaving fans speculating about his possible return to action.
During his last press conference Roberto De Zerbi couldn’t confirm if Maddison was fit enough to make an appearance against Villa, but hope remains he could be involved before the end of the season.”
West Ham fans will be sincerely wishing Maddison well but hoping he sees sense and delays his return until pre season. Nasty things those ACL injuries.
A Spurs side devoid of creativity is exactly what the Hammers will hope rocks up at Villa Park tonight.
As it turned out they didn’t need creativity. They just outplayed Villa and got a couple of early goals. That was good enough for them. Pity we couldn’t do that.
Villa dropped 7 players. Emery more interested in European game on Thursday by the looks of it.