Every season has its seminal moments and for Tottenham, it feels like how they handle their midweek disappointment in the Champions League is yet another one.
After the 4-3 aggregate defeat to Juventus, Mauricio Pochettino spoke of his pride at how far his men had come in Europe. Their focus must now switch to ensuring they are in the competition again next season as they travel to Bournemouth.
Spurs have the advantage in the race for the top four, sitting five points ahead of Chelsea and 13 clear of Arsenal, thanks to a run of four wins in their last five league games. By the time they play, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea will have already had the chance to put points on the board, so the Lilywhites will know exactly what they need to do.
Heung-Min Son has been key for the north Londoners in recent weeks, scoring five goals in his last three games. The South Korean is keeping Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura on the bench at present, but Pochettino may choose to freshen things up since he admits the Juventus game took a heavy emotional and physical toll on his players.
As for Bournemouth, they will not consider themselves safe just yet, but the Cherries have lost just once in their last 10, a surprise 4-1 mauling at Huddersfield Town.
What’s most impressive is that Eddie Howe has not had to rely on Josh King and Callum Wilson to score the goals, with Adam Smith, Junior Stanislas, Dan Gosling and Lys Mousset all finding the back of the net this month.
An interesting aside: when the two sides met in October at Wembley, a game Spurs won 1-0, much of the pre-match talk centred on Jermain Defoe facing his old club. Yet, since returning from an injury setback, the striker has only featured once and was an unused substitute in the 1-1 draw with Leicester.
Team News:
There was a fleeting moment a few weeks ago when Spurs could boast a fully fit squad, but Toby Alderweireld's recurring thigh problem has been a consistent problem, with the Belgian missing both legs of the Juventus tie. Long-term, perhaps that was for the best, as Eric Dier succumbed to the Serie A champions' physicality in the second half and will be assessed ahead of the trip to the Vitality Stadium.
Howe is missing Tyrone Mings, Jordan Ibe, and Marc Pugh.
Expected line-ups:
Bournemouth: Begovic, Francis, S. Cook, Ake, Daniels, Smith, L. Cook, Gosling, Stanislas, King, Wilson
Tottenham: LLoris, Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Rose, Dembele, Wanyama, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Kane
Did you know?
Bournemouth have a reputation for struggling against the Premier League's big six clubs. However, this season they have caused a few upsets along the way, beating Arsenal 2-1 and thrashing Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Until it was interrupted by Juventus, Spurs were on their longest unbeaten run (17 games) since 1967.
Prediction:
Tottenham haven’t been convincing on the road in recent months, but they still found a way to win in their last away game at Crystal Palace thanks to a late winner from Harry Kane.
The times Spurs have struggled against bottom-half teams this season are when they have shut up shop, but Bournemouth deserve credit for always taking the game to their opponents.
Howe’s side last lost at home on December 17 when they let in four against Liverpool, so they should provide a tough test but one which Spurs have the quality to overcome. Bournemouth 1-2 Tottenham
