Tottenham face yet another huge Premier League match this weekend as they travel to Wolverhampton looking to get out of the bottom three
Tottenham’s performance at Wolves this Saturday will go a long way to deciding their Premier League status as they look to put pressure on West Ham.
Despite a much-improved performance from Spurs against in-form Brighton, it is now 15 matches without a victory in the Premier League and the north London side have won only seven games all season in the competition. That leaves them 18th in the table and two points from safety behind West Ham, five points from Nottingham Forest and now nine points behind Leeds with a game in hand after Daniel Farke’s side’s draw at Bournemouth on Wednesday night.
Forest travel to Sunderland on Friday night, before West Ham host Everton at the same time as Tottenham play at bottom side Wolves, who had their relegation confirmed last weekend. Manchester City’s win at Burnley on Wednesday evening rubberstamped their drop back into the Championship.
Spurs will be desperate to avoid that same fate and Roberto De Zerbi will need to get his team selection spot on if the north London side are to win their first Premier League game of 2026. Working on the assumption that Destiny Udogie will miss the game through injury, which appears to be a strong suggestion from in and around the club, here are five different ways De Zerbi could line up Spurs.
Use Spence
A simple first line-up would be for the Italian to keep the same side that started and performed well against top of the form table Brighton but with just the one change at left-back.
If Udogie is, as expected, out of the game at Molineux then the next in line for the left-back spot in terms of seniority is Djed Spence. The England international is yet to start under De Zerbi and this could be his chance to show what he can do.
The issue of course is that Spence provides less width than Udogie because he is not left-footed, so more often than not will cut inside on to his right foot.
Elsewhere the team would remain the same with Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma in the middle and Conor Gallagher in the more advanced number 10 role with Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani either side behind Dominic Solanke.
Souza time
If De Zerbi does want some balance down that flank then he could turn to 19-year-old Souza to come in at left-back to replace Udogie.
It’s a big ask to bring the teenager in for such a crucial relegation battle game but the Brazilian had plenty of experience last season in a relegation fight with Santos.
The main issue for Souza is that he has not played a minute of football in more than a month and was not even included in the past two matchday squads under De Zerbi so he is going to be rusty as anything for a massive clash where any mistake will be seized upon.
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Xavi in the 10
Xavi came to life on Saturday with that great assist against Brighton for Pedro Porro’s goal and then his spectacular curling strike which looked to have won the game for Spurs before the late heartbreak.
The question for De Zerbi is whether he impacted the game better from the left or whether he could have even more involvement in a central position behind the striker.
One danger with Xavi on the flank is that the full-back does not get much cover unless a midfielder comes across to help out but De Zerbi is also a big fan of Gallagher and the former Chelsea midfielder played his best game so far in a Spurs shirt with his all-action pressing display against Brighton.
If Xavi were to come into the 10 role then Gallagher would either have to drop out for Mathys Tel, come into a deeper role or be shoved out awkwardly on the flank.
Gray or Bergvall return
Another option is to bring one or both of the 20-year-old midfielders in, with Archie Gray one of Spurs’ most in-form players in recent months and Lucas Bergvall making a major impact when he came on and won the ball back before assisting Xavi’s strike.
The problem with bringing either in would be disrupting the experienced midfield of Bentancur and Bissouma who looked bright and were back together in the engine room for the first time since the Europa League Final win against Manchester United in Bilbao 11 months ago.
“[Bentancur] had a great game. Like Bissouma, both are very important for us as personalities, as experience. They know, they have a great connection between them,” said De Zerbi.
“We have also Archie Gray, Joao Palhinha, Pape Sarr, Lucas Bergvall. Lucas played 10 minutes, but he changed the game. We have a lot of good players.”
Tel comes in
There are a couple of attacking changes that De Zerbi could make. One is to swap Solanke out for Richarlison and another is to bring in Tel for Kolo Muani.
De Zerbi holds Solanke in very high regard though and the way he spoke after the game suggested that Kolo Muani is the most at risk of the front players who started against Brighton.
“I would like all attackers to play like Solanke and Xavi today. They are not arrogant, but they believed in themselves and were clear,” he said.
“I have to work with Kolo Muani. He is a big talent. I want to help him not only to win a game, but just for him to show what he is able to do on the pitch.”
