We look ahead to this Premier League clash between two of the top-four contenders with our Tottenham vs Manchester United prediction and preview.
Tottenham vs Manchester United: The Quick Hits
- The Opta Supercomputer predicts a rare Spurs win in this fixture, giving them a 39.4% chance of beating Manchester United.
- Tottenham have suffered more defeats against Man Utd (39) than against any other opponent in the Premier League.
- Manchester United last won both of their opening two fixtures in a Premier League season in 2017-18.
Match Preview
Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United side will be looking to make it two wins from two in the Premier League this season, as they travel to Spurs on Saturday. They haven’t done that in a league season since 2017-18 under José Mourinho.
United will count themselves lucky to have picked up all three points in the opening match versus Wolves on Matchday 1. Despite winning 1-0 thanks to Raphaël Varane’s header from Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s lofted pass, Wolves attempted 23 shots – the most that Manchester United have faced in a Premier League match at Old Trafford in just under 18 years. André Onana made six saves in keeping a clean sheet on his competitive debut for the club but was lucky not to concede a penalty in injury time following a collision with Wolves’ Sasa Kalajdzic.
The Ange Postecoglou era at Tottenham Hotspur might not have started with a victory, but their 2-2 draw at Brentford last weekend was encouraging, nonetheless. The game saw Spurs enjoy 69.6% possession and complete 638 passes in total, with 71% of those in the opposition half – well above their 2022-23 seasonal averages of 396 and 43% respectively. It’s clear that the Australian has implemented his preferred playing style upon his new squad, but he’ll need to match that with positive results soon enough.
One player that failed to find the net in a Premier League game for Spurs, again, was Richarlison. The pressure is on the Brazilian to perform in front of goal following Harry Kane’s move to Bayern Munich, and after Sunday’s match at Brentford, he’s now played 1,096 minutes of Premier League action at Spurs and contributed just a single goal. Richarlison’s next goal would be his 50th in the Premier League, but he’s only scored once in nine league appearances versus Man Utd, for Everton in April 2019.
James Maddison enjoyed an encouraging competitive debut for Spurs, assisting both goals in the draw at Brentford. He was the first ever player to assist as many as two goals on his Premier League debut for the club and the only player to assist more than once in the competition on the opening matchday of this season.
Spurs trio Ryan Sessegnon, Bryan Gil and Rodrigo Bentancur are all ruled out of this game with injuries, while Tanguy Ndombélé is a major doubt. They’ll be looking for more positive news regarding the return of defender Cristian Romero, who was substituted with a head injury after opening the scoring last weekend versus Brentford. If Romero is absent, there’s a chance that Eric Dier could return to the side to partner summer signing Micky van de Ven in central defence.
Manchester United’s big summer signing Rasmus Højlund isn’t expected to be fit for this match, as he still recuperates from a back injury, while Lisandro Martínez is a doubt following an injury in the 1-0 win over Wolves on Matchday 1. Tyrell Malacia is definitely out for the Red Devils, with a knee injury.
Tottenham vs Manchester United Head-to-Head
Games against Manchester United have traditionally seen Tottenham Hotspur struggle. Across the Premier League era, Spurs have lost more games against Man Utd (39) than versus any other opponent. They’ve averaged just 0.69 points per game versus them in the competition – that’s lower than against any opponent they’ve faced in more than one Premier League season.
Just one of the last nine Premier League meetings between these clubs has finished with Spurs the victorious side (D2 L6), while they are now winless in five consecutive home games against Man Utd. This includes four fixtures at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with United the team to have visited the stadium the most often without losing in all competitions (W2 D2).
The last meeting between Tottenham and Manchester United came in April, as the two sides drew 2-2 in the Premier League in north London. Goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford put United 2-0 up at half-time, before Pedro Porro and Son Heung-Min both scored after the break to rescue a point for the home side.
Recent Form
Manchester United come into this match having won the second highest tally of Premier League points in 2023 so far (46) – below only Manchester City (56).
The 13-time Premier League champions will hope to do better than they did in their opening Premier League game away from home last season, where they lost 4-0 in a disastrous performance at Brentford. In fact, United have won their opening away game just once across the last five Premier League seasons (D2 L2), beating Brighton on the road in 2020-21.
Spurs lost their last Premier League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, going down 3-1 to Brentford in May. The last time that they lost two successive league games at home was back in January, when they lost to Aston Villa and Arsenal.
Since the start of last season, Tottenham have conceded at least twice in 21 of their 39 Premier League games. Among sides currently in the competition, only Nottingham Forest (22) have done so in more across this period.
In 2023 so far, Spurs have averaged just 1.35 points per game in the Premier League. That average is the 10th highest in the competition over this period and below fellow London clubs Brentford (1.68) and Fulham (1.36).
Across two seasons as Celtic coach, Postecoglou suffered just six home defeats in 76 league games within the Scottish Premiership, while guiding them to the highest tally of wins (61) and points (192) of any side in the competition.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Tottenham vs Manchester United Prediction
The Opta supercomputer believes we’ll see a home win for Tottenham Hotspur before kick-off in this game, with the London side given a 39.4% chance of victory. Manchester United may have won their opening Premier League game of 2023-24 against Wolves, but the performance levels in the 1-0 victory would have concerned many fans.
Both clubs will be aiming to achieve a top-four finish and therefore UEFA Champions League qualification at the end of the season, and despite the match prediction for this fixture, Man Utd are much more likely to achieve this than Spurs according to the Opta supercomputer.
Erik ten Hag’s side are currently given a 64.0% chance of finishing inside the top four, with a third-place finish their most likely position at the end of 2023-24 (22.3%).
Spurs, meanwhile, have been given just a 7.7% chance of reaching the top four, which is behind Chelsea (13.4%), Brighton (14.8%) and Newcastle United (33.1%).
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