Tottenham Hotspur are just a win away from re-entering the top-four of the Premier League( if all other sides falter this weekend) but for that, they will have to beat Man United at home on Sunday.
Man United sit pretty in the second spot of the table and have more or less qualified for the Champions League next season. But Spurs still need to fend off teams like West Ham, Chelsea and Liverpool to occupy that final UCL spot.
And according to Jose Mourinho, Sunday’s match vs United could play a big role in shaping the remainder of their season.
The manager said in his pre-match press conference: “We could be, should be, in the top four! But it’s better to be in a good position to attack them, than to be completely away from it.
“I believe last season when we went to this last period of matches, mathematically we had, but realistically we didn’t have any chance of the top four. Then we chased the top six, which we did on the last day.
“This time, we can be out of the top six, we can be in the top six, in the top four. It gives us a different range of options to put the players in maximum concentration and ambition for these remaining matches.
“It’s a very important match for us. If you remember last season, we played them in the first match after the lockdown, also very important, everyone considered that match key for our ambitions. This is an important match as well.
“We have to look at this moment to lots of other teams in the same area as we are, two points more, three points more, two points less, same number of points, and it’s week after week we cannot lose points to them, we have to recover step by step and this match is important like every other match because the three points are there on the pitch to play for.”
Spurs had the golden chance to enter the top-four last weekend but they were held to a 2-2 draw by Newcastle United. And this result perfectly sums up their current season.
Man United, on the other hand, have been in superb form on the road and they go into Sunday’s game unbeaten in 22 away matches. So purely based on their away form, a lot of pundits have put their money on Solskjaer’s side to pick up a win.
The last time these two sides met, Spurs blew away Manchester United but we don’t expect to see such a result on Sunday. But anything other than a win is not good enough for Mourinho since if the other top-four contenders all pick up wins then Spurs could fall down to the eighth spot on the table.
