Spurs vs Leicester

Competition: Premier League 24/25

Date: 26th Jan 2025

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Kickoff: 14:00 (GMT)

TV: Tottenham Hotspur vs Leicester City - Stream and TV Schedule

Match Preview

For all of Spurs' Premier League failures over the festive and New Year period, knockout football has provided Postecoglou's men with a safe haven, evidenced by their fourth straight win in such contests on Thursday evening.

Following League Cup successes over Liverpool and Manchester United and their FA Cup beating of Tamworth - albeit a highly unconvincing one - the Lilywhites ran out 3-2 victors on Hoffenheim's soil, where a Son Heung-min double inched them ever closer to a top-eight finish.

While Tottenham's non-Premier League feats have marginally alleviated the pressure on Postecoglou - whose bold second-season trophy claim could still come to fruition - the Australian's side can certainly be considered relegation candidates amid their shocking top-flight predicament.

Last weekend's 3-2 loss to David Moyes's Everton marked the hosts' third defeat on the spin in the Premier League, where they remain winless since demolishing lowly Southampton on December 15, and the Lilywhites are just eight points clear of the drop zone in 15th spot.

In fact, the aforementioned Saints are the only side to have both lost more Premier League games and conceded more Premier League goals than Tottenham since the start of December, and Postecoglou's injury-hit crop have accrued just two points from their last 18 on offer at their home ground.

As is the case with their hosts, leaky Leicester have only had knockout successes to shout about so far in 2025; a 6-2 decimation of Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup third round is sandwiched in between a harrowing septet of consecutive Premier League losses.

Just three days on from going down 2-0 at home to Crystal Palace, Ruud van Nistelrooy's men suffered the exact same fate when Fulham paid a visit, succumbing to Emile Smith Rowe's brave diving header and an Adama Traore effort in the second 45.

While only Championship-bound Southampton have performed worse than the 19th-placed Foxes this season, the gap to safety is still just two points, and the visitors ought to be encouraged by the fact that Ipswich Town and Wolverhampton Wanderers face the top two - Liverpool and Arsenal - respectively this weekend.

However, what is not encouraging is a dreadful sequence of just one win from 14 Premier League matches, and Leicester are yet to keep a clean sheet away from home in the 2024-25 top-flight season, losing each of their last five on rival turf.

Speaking of the Foxes shipping goals away from home, they have conceded at least three goals in each of their last five Premier League defeats on Tottenham's turf, although a Steve Cooper-led Leicester outfit came away from August's encounter with a creditable 1-1 draw to their name.

Team News

Bereft of good news on the injury front for weeks, Tottenham at least had Rodrigo Bentancur and Fraser Forster back from concussion and illness respectively against Hoffenheim, but Djed Spence, Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma remain touch-and-go due to knocks.

Antonin Kinsky will definitely return to the fold after missing the Europa League win, where Richarlison completed just under an hour up top as Postecoglou prepares him for his first Premier League start of the season on Sunday.

Indeed, the Spurs boss has now confirmed that Dominic Solanke faces up to six weeks on the sidelines with a new knee injury, joining Guglielmo Vicario (ankle), Cristian Romero (thigh), Micky van de Ven (hamstring), Wilson Odobert (hamstring), Destiny Udogie (hamstring), Brennan Johnson (calf) and Timo Werner (hamstring) in the well-occupied infirmary.

Leicester's injury situation is not quite so debilitating, but the Foxes still cannot call upon Abdul Fatawu (knee), Wilfred Ndidi (thigh) or Ricardo Pereira (thigh), while Mads Hermansen's groin issue will not heal in time either.

However, new signing Woyo Coulibaly should be eligible to make his Premier League debut this weekend, albeit most likely as a substitute, while both Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks shall reunite with their old employers.

Van Nistelrooy should not be averse to some alterations amid his team's abysmal sequence, although Facundo Buonanotte may not be among the players to benefit following claims that he was on the receiving end of a dressing-down from his manager last weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Kinsky; Porro, Gray, Dragusin, Davies; Sarr, Bentancur, Maddison; Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son

Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Stolarczyk; Justin, Faes, Vestergaard, Kristiansen; Skipp, Soumare; McAteer, El Khannouss, Mavididi; Vardy

Key lines from Ange's news conference:

• Postecoglou said "nothing has changed in the past 24 hours" after striker Dominic Solanke was ruled out for "around six weeks" with a knee injury, with "nothing imminent" in terms of signing a replacement.
• He added that Djed Spence is "still sore" and he and Pape Sarr are both "a doubt", while Sergio Reguilon "should be OK" for Sunday.
• On Richarlison: "As fit as he could possibly be. We're managing his minutes at the moment. He's not played for a long time so he won't be at his sharpest, but the reality is unless something changes he has to play."
• He was pleased with Thursday's Europa League win at Hoffenheim with just 13 first-team players fit: "Very proud. Outstanding effort by the players. Really important game for us in the European context. Thought the lads gave everything. Young players were outstanding. Really pleased with the outcome."
• Spurs' injury crisis is getting harder to manage: "It's not about me, it's about the players. It is getting increasingly difficult for them to maintain performance. We should have some light at the end of the tunnel in the next couple of weeks. At the same time, there is always the possibility that before the guys come back we lose a couple who are here. That's the challenging bit."
• However, Postecoglou is happy with how his squad have coped: "It's been two months of hard grind for the players and we are just trying to help them as much as we can. They are working so hard in between games to stay fit. The resilience and the determination of the players to still get out there and perform is a fantastic thing for me to witness. I couldn't be prouder of them."
• His young players have stepped up: "Irrespective of the difficulties we have had in the past couple of months, we will definitely benefit from the growth of our younger players. We just have to be careful with them. There's no doubt we will get benefits for many years to come."
• On captain Son Heung-min: "He's an outstanding player, outstanding person. He's had to grind his way through he past couple of months. We're asking him to play a hell of a lot and as attacking players it's always more difficult."

Match Stats

Head-to-head

• Tottenham have won five of their past six Premier League home games with Leicester, losing the other.

• The Foxes could avoid defeat in both top-flight fixtures against Spurs in a season for the first time since their 2015-16 title-winning campaign.

• The 35 Premier League meetings have produced 130 goals at an average of 3.7 per game.

Tottenham Hotspur

• Tottenham have lost five of their past six Premier League matches, drawing the other.

• Spurs have suffered 12 defeats in their first 22 league games of a season for the first time since 1997-98.

• The Lilywhites are winless in six successive home league fixtures, drawing two and losing four, for the first time since a run of eight under Juande Ramos between March and October 2008.

• Their last top-flight clean sheet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium came in a 4-0 win over Everton in August 2024.

• Ange Postecoglou could become the second Spurs manager to lose four successive Premier League games on two separate occasions, emulating David Pleat in 2003-04.

• Dejan Kulusevski has created 56 chances in the top flight this season, second only to Cole Palmer's 62.

Leicester City

• Leicester could equal the club record of eight successive league defeats, set between March and April 2001.

• Their only Premier League away win this season came at Southampton in October - the Foxes have only taken two points from their other nine games on the road.

• They have kept just one Premier League clean sheet this season, in a 1-0 win over Bournemouth in October.

• Leicester have also scored just twice in their past seven league matches, conceding 18 goals during that run.

• Jakub Stolarczyk is the first goalkeeper in Premier League history to concede multiple goals in his first five appearances.

• Jamie Vardy has scored nine goals in 16 Premier League appearances against Tottenham.

Head to head (h2h) history and results

Tottenham wins: 61

Draws: 22

Leicester wins: 38

Pundit Predictions

Mark Lawrenson

It’s high time we had a reaction from Tottenham and this is a great chance to do so. There’s loads of problems with Spurs but they do normally score goals. Since Ruud van Nistelrooy’s come in Leicester have lost pretty much every game and they’re up to seven on the bounce now. Tottenham 3-0 Leicester.

Alan Shearer

Leicester have been really poor. I heard the chants before and after the game last weekend, and I know Spurs are in a pickle at the minute. 

You would think after winning on Thursday night and then going again on Sunday, Spurs will have too much for them. If they don't then you can just feel the ramifications of what the crowd and everyone else will be saying and feeling. I'm not convinced but I'll go for a Spurs win.

It's a must-win game at home against Leicester. If they don't, you just know what will happen, so it's a must win for Spurs.

Alan's prediction: Tottenham to Win

Paul Merson

I often watch Leicester play and they are now seven games without a win. They start well at times but just can't find the first goal. Then half-time comes and they get disheartened before losing it all in the second half. Leicester are not getting battered like Southampton, they are a decent team.

If they can find that opening goal in games, they will start getting better results. I don't know if it's a confidence or a concentration issue, but that is holding them back now. Leicester still have a chance in the relegation battle in my opinion and this is the perfect game because they're playing Tottenham!

Considering how Spurs play, Jamie Vardy can cause them a lot of problems in this game. If Leicester can ride their luck and Tottenham have an off day, even if it's just in front of goal like against Ipswich earlier this season, they have a chance. If Leicester and Vardy can trouble Tottenham with their counter-attack, we might witness a result that will set the cat among the pigeons!

I hope Ange Postecoglou doesn't leave. If you take Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate out of Liverpool or William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes out of Arsenal, those teams will face problems. I know Micky van de Ven and Christian Romero are not considered to be at that level just yet, but Spurs are a different team when they both play. Bit unlucky with their injuries, so I would like Postecoglou to get another year in this job.

Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Leicester City

Chris Sutton

Tottenham have only picked up one point from their past six league games but that is still better than Leicester, who have now lost seven in a row.

Things are becoming increasingly desperate at Spurs, too. Ange Postecoglou seems to be getting a lot of backing from above, but this is an enormous game for him.

They are missing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven at the back but there is still an argument that the players who have come in should be doing better than they are.

That's the way I feel anyway - I look at the Tottenham team and they should not be trailing by three goals, going on five or six, at half-time against Everton.

I think you can lose certain games as an under-pressure manager, but not others. I was worried for Postecoglou when Spurs went three goals down because of the pressure that losing to another struggling team would put on him.

The same applies here. Lose this and he's in deep trouble.

I love watching Ange's teams play, I have got a lot of time for him and he has been really unfortunate with a few things, but if Spurs are beaten at home by Leicester then things could get pretty ugly even if they are still in both domestic cups and the Europa League.

I don't think that will happen though. These two sides drew 1-1 on the opening day but this time I am backing Spurs to win comfortably.

Sutton's prediction: 4-1

COYS