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.
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With Rodrigo Bentancur out of action for longer than Conte had hoped with his adductor muscle tear, Yves Bissouma starts again in the centre of the pitch with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Up front Dejan Kulusevski misses out with a slight muscle injury which is set to be scanned tomorrow, although Spurs are hopeful he will only miss one game. In his absence, Bryan Gil comes in to support Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, with Richarlison and Lucas Moura remaining out injured, leaving Conte with a bench lacking in attacking options.
Here is the team Conte has selected:
Lloris; Romero, Lenglet, Davies; Doherty, Bissouma, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Gil, Kane, Son. Subs: Forster, Sanchez, Dier, Tanganga, Emerson, Spence, Sessegnon, Sarr, Skipp.
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