Antonio Conte and Cristian Stellini have named their Tottenham Hotspur side which will take to the field in this afternoon’s Premier League clash against Chelsea.
Conte returned to the dugout for the recent defeat to Leicester and was present for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash against AC Milan in his home country on, which his side lost 1-0 at the San Siro.
The 53-year-old has remained in Italy as part of his recovery from gallbladder removal surgery following a check-up the day after the Milan match and today will be the second Premier League fixture which he will not be in north London for, having also been absent for the win over Manchester City.
Spurs are aiming for three consecutive Premier League home wins without conceding for the first time since their opening three matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in April 2019.
The north Londoners will want to end their rotten run against their rivals this afternoon and put the pressure on Newcastle, who are not in Premier League action this weekend due to their involvement in the League Cup final against Manchester United.
Spurs are once again without Hugo Lloris, Ryan Sessegnon, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur who are all sidelined through injury.
Chelsea on the other hand are are aiming to avoid a run of six games without a win in all competitions for the first time since November to December 2012.
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Graham Potter is without N’Golo Kante, Christian Pulisic and César Azpilicueta.
Conte and Stellini have decided to keep faith with the same starting eleven that beat the Hammers which means that Heung-min Son is on the bench for the second game in a row.
This is who takes to the field at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this afternoon:
Tottenham XI: Forster; Romero, Dier, Lenglet; Royal, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Davies; Kulusevski, Richarlison; Kane
Subs: Austin, Sanchez, Son, Perisic, Danjuma, Porro, Tanganga, Moura, Sarr.
Chelsea XI: Kepa; James; Koulibaly, Silva, Chilwell; Loftus-Cheek, Fernandez; Ziyech, Felix, Sterling; Havertz
Subs: Bettinelli, Badiashile, Aubameyang, Mudryk, Mount, Zakaria, Gallagher, Madueke, W. Fofana.
Stellini spoke at Friday’s press conference about whether the main decision would be to start Richarlison or Heung-min Son, he told Football.London: The decision was about the condition of the players. Richy had recovered 100 per cent, Son had a problem that he bring with him for a bit of time.
“Sometimes player that has a problem needs time to recover and be well prepared for the next period. In the next period we have four games in 10 days and every game will be tough.
“We need every player 100 per cent, it will be tough and we need every player 100%. If we have one player 100 per cent and another one 70 per cent, we have to choose the 100 per cent player.
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