My thinking that the overall standard in the EPL had regressed a little this season looked a little silly after the European league stages had finished, but less so after this midweek, which saw Aston Villa, who are not very good (!), record the only win in nine games and five teams lose, including Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham, the trio all by 3+ goals, conceding 13 and those results are hanging over this round of games like the Sword of Damocles.

 

 

Liverpool will be reasonably confident of turning round their 1-0 deficit to Galatasaray this coming midweek, who are nowhere near as strong on the road as they are at home and they will arrive at Anfield without any supporters due to a ban and the away end has been opened up to home supporters. However, the Reds and head coach Arne Slot are under huge pressure to finish in the Champions League places in the EPL too and they desperately need a win and whilst the same is true for Spurs, the visitors have not won a league game in 2026 and the club and head coach Igor Tudor seem totally incapable of making a correct decision and their 5-2 defeat at Atletico Madrid in midweek , could have easily have been a bigger drubbing and at four down inside 23 minutes, commentators were hunting through the record books to see just how historically bad it could be. To be fair, they actually put in some effort from that point, although Micky van de Ven should have been sent off yet again and his actions smack of someone who wants away and I suspect he is not alone.

 

This fixture doesn't offer much hope, as Spurs have won just 5 times at Anfield in 114 years and once in the last 33 , they have scored in the last eight league visits and I have been banging on about the hosts defensive issues for a couple of seasons, but as bad as they are, they are as nothing compared to the problems in the visiting camp. I think Spurs will score and even twice is likely, but hard to see how any decent offensive unit is not going to rack up the goals to an even greater degree against the North London side. There are more Spurs notes in the Palace-Leeds preview below. 3-2/4-2.

 

 

 

Good luck!