Game week 10 predictions: United seek points in North London

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer will hope to halt the rot with a trip to Tottenham on Saturday, will he find joy in North London? (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Tottenham vs Manchester United
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
5:30pm

Not many thought Ole Gunnar Solksjaer would still be in charge at Manchester United’s dugout by the time this particular game would go live considering the annihilation at the hands of Liverpool last weekend but the management has decided to keep faith with the Norwegian.

Tottenham are blowing hot and cold, they have clawed things back from the very dark pit they sank into after losing the North London Derby to Arsenal, they can win here and go fourth, but beyond the points they’ll rack up, they will also be helping their own confidence.

Manchester United are in a very bad place, confidence is low and they have lost the bragging rights in the title race and everyone that rated them highly to win the premiership this season is now looking like a clown, including yours truly.

Ole has said he will give it his best till the very end, how much time does he have? One can’t tell for now with fans wanting him out and the board being careful not to make a bad situation worse, the following run of games will tell anyway.

Tottenham have their own problems too, they have a lot of players battling fitness and the manager is still learning the ropes in London, they need time but modern football won’t offer you much and you have to take every game as a cup final.

United must win this game, not even because they need to keep their manager or because they need to earn bragging rights, they’re drifting away from the top and going 8 points behind at this stage is crazy and unacceptable.

The current premier league season will most likely be the most difficult, it will be really close this time and you won’t bring the Manchester City narrative from last season, teams will punish you and if you hand them the gap, you will die trying to close it with smaller clubs hitting hard for survival.

How will Ole approach this? He has to find a way to motivate the boys, they can’t keep playing like there’s nothing at stake, Cristiano Ronaldo must deliver the goods and in the middle of the park there has to be a balance.

Ole is without Paul Pogba who was sent off in the embarrassment against Liverpool, Fred and Scott McTominay will be the men in a double pivot with Bruno Fernandes in the hole, Rashford, Greenwood and Ronaldo should complete the trio upfront.

Spurs will trust Harry Kane and Heung Min Son to drive the hosts forward, we don’t know who will be behind them but we should have a great game and Spurs would hope there’s no repeat of the last time they hosted the Red Devils.