The mood at Manchester United is one of frustration mixed with hope that very soon events will take a turn for the better on the pitch with results matching performance.
United host Spurs looking for a first home league win since September, having drawn their last four top flight games at Old Trafford.
Tottenham have won their last two, returning to form with a 5-0 win over Swansea in the Premier League last week, before a 3-1 win over CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in midweek.
The visitors are six points ahead of José Mourinho’s side in fifth place and given Mauricio Pochettino was of interest to United before hiring the Portuguese, each man may have a little extra motivation to deliver three points.
Toby Alderweireld is set to make his long-awaited return to the Tottenham first team at Old Trafford. Alderweireld has been out of action for eight weeks with a knee injury but came off the bench in Wednesday’s Champions League win over CSKA Moscow.
Erik Lamela is unavailable as he is still in Argentina attending to his brother, who is in hospital. Vincent Janssen remains out with an ankle problem.
For United Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian come back into contention after being rested for the trip to Ukraine.
Manchester United have won only two of their last eight Premier League contests against Spurs (D3 L3).
Spurs’ 3-0 win over Manchester United in April at White Hart Lane was their biggest win over the Red Devils in the Premier League since January 1996 (4-1).
However, Tottenham have lost 19 times at Old Trafford in the Premier League (W2 D3), their most defeats at a visiting ground.
Manchester United’s players have covered just 1490.6km overall in the Premier League this season combined – lower than any other team in the competition.
Harry Kane has scored against 21 of the 24 different opponents that he has faced in the Premier League, but is yet to score against Man Utd in five appearances. The other teams that he has played but not scored against in the competition are Watford (2 apps, 0 goals) and Cardiff City (2 apps, 0 goals).
Kane has now scored seven goals in his last six Premier League appearances – this after failing to score in his previous five in a row.
