On the hunt for a third Premier League win on the spin, Tottenham Hotspur travel to Portman Road to face Ipswich Town, where revenge will be on the mind for Ange Postecoglou and co.
The Lilywhites were memorably beaten by their newly-promoted foes when they welcomed them to North London earlier in the season, a shock scalp which marked the Tractor Boys' first top-flight win of the campaign.
Match preview
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As Tottenham gear up for a bottom-half battle on Saturday, last weekend's headline encounter with Manchester United represented another clash between two sides in the lower echelons of the top-flight standings, which few could have surely foreseen at the start of the term.
However, as Man United's injury crisis worsened while Tottenham's eased, Postecoglou's men came up trumps in the clash between two fallen titans, where James Maddison struck the only goal in a 1-0 win before literally 'taking aim' at recent critic Roy Keane with an imaginary dart.
Slaying Ruben Amorim's men - no matter how deep Man United's crisis may be - was the perfect tonic to back-to-back EFL Cup and FA Cup exits for Spurs, whose only hopes of silverware may now be resting on the Europa League, but things may finally be looking up once more.
No longer working around a double-figure absentee list, Postecoglou has seen the Lilywhites shoot up to 12th place in the Premier League rankings, although the Australian was under no illusions last week that their mid-table ranking remains "unacceptable" for a club of their calibre.
Furthermore, the visitors cannot rise any higher up the division no matter what transpires over the weekend, but they could now achieve a feat they have not managed since the days of Antonio Conte in May 2022, win three consecutive Premier League games without conceding.
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Ipswich have to travel back an additional 20 years for the last time that they prevailed in three top-flight encounters on the bounce - last doing so in the 2001-02 campaign - and the brilliant beating of Tottenham did not lead to a sustained upturn in fortunes for Kieran McKenna's side.
Only two more Premier League victories have been added to Ipswich's paltry total since then, and the Tractor Boys are still waiting for their first top-flight success of 2025, having failed to triumph in any of their six games in the competition since the turn of the year.
However, taking a point home from a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa last weekend may have felt as good as three for the Tractor Boys, who had to cope with 10 men for the entire second half and forced their foes to come from behind after Liam Delap's 10th Premier League goal of the season.
The heroics of Alex Palmer in goal ensured that Ipswich would snap a four-game losing run in the top division, but they remain two points adrift of safety in 18th position and come into the weekend having lost six of their last seven home games in the Premier League, including each of their last three.
On a more pleasing note, November's surprise win over Spurs in North London means that Ipswich have now conquered their more esteemed opponents four times in a row in the Premier League, and Tottenham's only success from their last six league trips to Portman Road came all the way back in 1994.
Team News
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It was not all good news on the fitness front for Tottenham last week, as Kevin Danso, Rodrigo Bentancur and Son Heung-min were all forcibly withdrawn in the win over Man United, but Postecoglou is confident that all of them were only suffering from minor knocks.
As a result, there is nothing to suggest that the trio will not be fit to face the Tractor Boys, and there is also hope that Timo Werner will return from his hamstring problem in time for Saturday, not that he would be in any position to start, though.
Longer-term absentees Richarlison (calf), Dominic Solanke (knee), Micky van de Ven (thigh), Cristian Romero (thigh) and Radu Dragusin (ACL) are still out of contention, but all except Dragusin are anticipated to return before the next international break.
As for hosts Ipswich, Axel Tuanzebe's sending-off at Villa Park for two bookable offences means that the right-back will serve a one-match suspension on Saturday, where Ben Johnson should drop into a defensive role to cover.
Tuanzebe's ban is one of two fresh blows that the Tractor Boys suffered last weekend, as Julio Enciso hurt his knee just 17 minutes into the contest and has now joined Wes Burns (knee), Chiedozie Ogbene (calf) and Christian Walton (groin) on the sidelines.
However, all of of Szmodics (ankle), Sam Morsy (abdominal) and Leif Davis (unspecified) are once again available for Saturday's game, where Conor Chaplin (knee) could even make his return too.
Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:
Palmer; Johnson, O'Shea, Greaves, Davis; Cajuste, Phillips; Philogene, Hutchinson, Clarke; Delap
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicario; Porro, Danso, Davies, Spence; Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison; Kulusevski, Tel, Son
We say: Ipswich Town 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur
As praiseworthy as Ipswich's point was at Villa Park, the Tractor Boys needed an inspired Palmer to get them out of jail time and time again, and their Premier League home woes are extremely well-documented.
McKenna's men should not be blown to smithereens by any stretch, but a Tottenham side boosted both confidence-wise and numbers-wise have our vote to complete their East Anglian revenge mission.
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Ben Knapton
