Harry Redknapp does not think things will get any easier for Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou over the weekend, explaining why he expects Bournemouth to leave with all three points from North London.
At the moment, all eyes are on the Europa League for Tottenham, who would already be thinking about how they can bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar in the first leg.
However, before they can look ahead to the second leg at home next Thursday, they have the small matter of a clash against European qualification hopefuls, Bournemouth.
Harry Redknapp expects Tottenham to lose to the Cherries
Harry Redknapp believes that Tottenham’s primary focus will be on the return leg against Alkmaar, and also questioned if their key players might be tired after their exertions on Thursday.
The former Spurs manager pointed out that Bournemouth would be much more desperate to get three points, and backed Andoni Iraola’s men to edge out their opponents in a five-goal thriller.
Redknapp told BetVictor about Sunday’s game: “This could be a thriller! Tottenham’s form has picked up a little bit and they’re obviously getting more and more players back from injury. It’s all a bit late in terms of the league campaign, they’ll be going all out to try and win the Europa League.
“Bournemouth got beat last time out in the league at Brighton, but they should never have lost that one. After that dramatic win on penalties last week, they’ll arrive here with plenty of confidence. How will Tottenham recover from playing on Thursday against such an energetic, high-pressing side?”
Score prediction: It’s a bold call; I’m going for a 3-2 Bournemouth win!
When asked to name his player to watch for the clash, Redknapp said: “Evanilson is now back from injury to lead the line and that should make a difference and at least give Bournemouth another option in that attacking area.”
Ange Postecoglou will rotate his Spurs squad for Bournemouth clash
We saw the Tottenham head coach leave out some big names against Man City last week, with his decision to omit Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence from the starting eleven not going down well with some Spurs fans.
After the game, Ange Postecoglou made it clear that he will continue to rotate his Spurs squad, now that he finally has options to do so.
We can thus expect more of the same against the Cherries, with the likes of Wilson Odobert, Pape Sarr, Pedro Porro, and others likely to be back in the Tottenham starting eleven as the Australian attempts to keep his players fresh for the return leg against Alkmaar.