{"id":554110,"date":"2020-06-19T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=554110"},"modified":"2020-06-17T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T15:08:13","slug":"tottenham-hotspur-first-up-fo-manchester-united-in-unpredictable-opening-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/06\/19\/tottenham-hotspur-first-up-fo-manchester-united-in-unpredictable-opening-fixture\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham Hotspur First Up for Manchester United in Unpredictable Opening Fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> will face Manchester United<\/a> at 20:15 GMT this Friday. It will be their first match of project restart, and with both teams having had a rollercoaster ride of a season so far, they will hope to gain stability with the Premier League<\/a>\u2019s return, bidding for Champions League<\/a> qualification.<\/p>\n

Tottenham Hotspur to Take On Manchester United in Unpredictable Opening Fixture<\/h2>\n

Head to Head<\/h3>\n

The Red Devils have taken on Spurs once before this campaign, emerging victorious with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford. Over the past few years, results have been mixed, with a fairly even ratio of wins for both sides.<\/p>\n

Going into the break, however, United were the in-form team. Bruno Fernandes<\/a> had signed in January, and with him they looked a fantastic outfit. United have not lost since the Portuguese playmaker\u2019s debut and will be keen to continue this record when they face Tottenham, ultimately playing for the win.<\/p>\n

Off the back of a 4-0 aggregate defeat to RB Leipzig in the Champions League and without a win since mid-February, football\u2019s suspension came at a good time for Spurs. They will hope to regroup and, with many vital returns from injury, put up a good fight against United.<\/p>\n

Team News<\/h3>\n

Despite their good form, Manchester United were struggling with injuries before the break. Two of their most important first team players, Marcus Rashford<\/a> and Paul Pogba<\/a>, looked as if they were out for the rest of the season, and other depth players like Eric Bailly<\/a> and Axel Tuanzebe<\/a> were just starting to return. United will hope that the boost of two star players will be enough to help them beat their competition this Friday, with fans excited to see Fernandes, Pogba, and Rashford playing together.<\/p>\n

The Red Devils do have one injury though, that of Phil Jones<\/a>. It is minor, but will likely see him miss the Tottenham match.<\/p>\n

Spurs have two key returnees as well. Harry Kane<\/a> and Son Heung-min<\/a> were both long-term absences before the break, but are now back to full health. Both are critical parts of their attack, and fans will be delighted to have a full-strength offence back for such a big game.<\/p>\n

The London side still have injuries, though. Both Youngster Troy Parrot<\/a> and academy graduate Japhet Tanganga<\/a> are ruled out for the United match. And, Dele Alli<\/a> will also miss it with a one-match suspension as a punishment for improper conduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United: Our Prediction<\/h3>\n

While the game will be played at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, home advantage is not a big deal when games are behind closed doors. In fact, the Bundesliga has seen many more away wins than home wins since its return.<\/p>\n

Along with the tremendous form they were in before the break and their important players returning from injury, it seems that United will just have the upper hand in this one.<\/p>\n

Despite this, it is a largely unpredictable game, with no one truly knowing how project restart will go.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Manchester United<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Main Photo<\/p>\n

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Tottenham Hotspur will face Manchester United at 20:15 GMT this Friday. It will be their first match of project restart, and with both teams having had a rollercoaster ride of a season so far, they will hope to gain stability with the Premier League\u2019s return, bidding for Champions League qualification. Tottenham Hotspur to Take On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3312,"featured_media":554122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,1828,18,24],"tags":[3473,264,36,5686,140,40,96,5687,136],"class_list":["post-554110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-fixtures","category-manchester-united","category-tottenham","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-harry-kane","tag-manchester-united","tag-manchester-united-fixtures","tag-paul-pogba","tag-premier-league","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-tottenham-hotspur-fixtures","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}