Tottenham Hotspur are looking to start the new year with a bang as they welcome Aston Villa and Antonio Conte has made a big change in the centre of defence.
Spurs returned after the World Cup break with a 2-2 draw at Brentford on Boxing Day and in doing so extended their unwanted streak of conceding the first goal during a game to nine matches in a row. Conte has World Cup finalists Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero back in contention and both start the game against Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Spurs boss said on Friday that he would not be worried about rotating the out of form Eric Dier out of his line-up, after he looked shaky against Brentford with one sliced clearance leading to the corner Ivan Toney scored the hosts' second goal from, and that's exactly what Conte has done with Clement Lenglet moving into the centre with Ben Davies coming in on the left and Romero replacing Japhet Tanganga on the right.
