Tottenham Hotspur host their local rivals Arsenal on Sunday in the latest instalment of the North London Derby.
Three huge points are at stake for both sides as they have their own targets to attain in the closing games of the campaign.
Ange Postecoglou‘s side have a lot of ground still to make up if they are to land themselves a spot in the top four.
Defeat last time out on Tyneside dealt a major blow in Tottenham‘s battle to qualify for the Champions League.
But there is a lot more at stake at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday than just the points with bragging rights and the potential to damage Arsenal’s title charge on the line.
Going into the game, Postecoglou will have some key decisions to make with his starting XI and has a number of injury issues to deal with.
News broke late last week of Destiny Udogie‘s training ground injury which has curtailed his season as he has had to undergo surgery.
The obvious choice to replace him would be the other natural left-back in the squad, Ben Davies.
However, there could well be an argument made for Micky van de Ven to move across to the full-back spot and Radu Dragusin come in at centre-back.
Ange Postecoglou could look to make four changes from Newcastle defeat
Going into the game, it is apparent Postecoglou is going to be forced into one change with Udogie out through injury.
The safe option would be to start Davies and keep Van de Ven in his natural position at centre-back. There is no need to over complicate it going into such a big game.
But there could be some interesting decisions for the 58-year-old to make on the back of this week’s training sessions.
It has now been claimed Richarlison has returned to training this week following his difficult injury spell.
The last few weeks have simply not been good enough from Tottenham’s attackers with just two goals coming from the frontline since the win over Aston Villa.
So as long as Richarlison has got through the week of training unscathed then it could make a lot of sense for Postecoglou to bring the £90k-per-week striker straight back into the starting XI.
Another potential change Postecoglou could look to make in attack is bringing Dejan Kulusevski back into the fold.
The Swede has been dropped from the starting XI in recent weeks after a lack of effectiveness in the final third.
However, coming up against the Gunners is likely going to need the Spurs wingers to provide a bit more defensive cover than they would in other games.
Arsenal are the league’s top scorers (82) and showed Chelsea on Tuesday night just how clinical they can be.
Although Brennan Johnson has been in better form in front of goal, Kulusevski would offer Pedro Porro greater help when the ball is turned over.
Statistics via FBRef.
Decision to make in midfield after Yves Bissouma’s Toon display
The form of Yves Bissouma has been a real talking point in recent games and he could very easily find himself being dropped on Sunday.
However, Rodrigo Bentancur also falls into that category and Bissouma is now likely to be seen as the number six at Tottenham.
Bringing in Pape Matar Sarr may provide Spurs with an energy boost in the middle which was lacking against the Magpies last time out.
But Postecoglou may be cautious of making too many changes as he will already be forced into making one at left-back.
Although his form has been poor, it does feel as if Bissouma could remain a regular in the Spurs midfield for the remainder of the campaign.
Predicted Tottenham XI v Arsenal (4-3-3): Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Davies, Bissouma, Sarr, Maddison, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son**