Matchday: Swansea 2 – 2 Tottenham

One last chance to see Tottenham play before another horrid international break interrupts Actual Football. Mauricio Pochettino’s boys travel to Wales to take on Garry Monk’s sputtering Swansea side.

Tottenham have won all six of their last meeting with Swansea, though such stats are mostly meaningless. More important should be a September that Swansea fans are no doubt eager to forget. Three losses and one draw in all competitions go a long way to blunting the advantages of a strong August.

All that doesn’t change the fact that that August was especially strong. Even if Monk’s boys have experienced an extreme dip in form, they are still the team capable of beating Manchester United on August 30th.

So with all that in mind, let’s take a look at the starting XIs.

Tottenham

Swansea

A predictably strong side for Tottenham, identical to the one that played against Manchester City last weekend but for Heung-Min Son’s absence due to injury. As we covered in our key battles piece from Saturday, Dele Alli and Eric Dier will have to be wary of getting too far forward if only to check the influence of Jonjo Shelvey and Ki Sung-Yueng.

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No Kyle Naughton in the Swansea side is perhaps a smart choice. Angel Rangel comes in for him and will likely have to deal with Nacer Chadli’s attempts to influence the game from out wide.

Mousa Dembélé features on the bench for Tottenham, a happy sight though with Érik Lamela in such good form it’s a doubt that the Belgian finds a way back into the first team anytime soon.

Check back at halftime for some snap reaction to the first 45 minutes of play.

Next: Halftime Reaction