Two Premier League Golden Boot contenders go head to head on Sunday as Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku face off at White Hart Lane.

Spurs thrashed Stoke 4-0 last weekend to go second in the table, with Kane’s hat-trick drawing him level with Lukaku at the top of the goal rankings with 17 strikes apiece.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side may need a miracle to win the title with Chelsea 10 points ahead of them with 12 games remaining, but Spurs fans will remain optimistic as their fixture list thins out following their Europa League exit.

Everton may prove tough opponents with Lukaku leading the line for the seventh-placed Toffeees, but Spurs are riding the crest of a wave of optimism as supporters say goodbye to the Lane before the stadium is redeveloped.

Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful Toby Alderweireld (groin) and Jan Vertonghen (hamstring) will be fit after both centre-backs were taken off against Stoke.

The defensive duo went off in the second half of the 4-0 win, but Pochettino confirmed that their withdrawals were precautionary measures.

Everton have experimented with a 3-4-2-1 set-up similar to Tottenham’s this season, and both teams could deploy the same formation at White Hart Lane if, as Pochettino hopes, Vertonghen and Alderweireld are passed fit.

Danny Rose remains sidelined until mid-March with a knee injury, while Erik Lamela is still out with a hip problem.

Everton have no fresh injury concerns for the trip to north London, with Lukaku expected to lead the line.

Source: standard.co.uk

See more here

After making his return to the ring in January 2016 following a three-and-a-half year break from fighting, Haye claims he has chosen to fight Tony Bellew due to public demand.

“The public demand for me to violently knockout Tony ‘The Bell-End’ Bellew was simply too strong,” said Haye.

“The country is fed up of his constant yapping. Even in his home town of Liverpool, I would be stopped in the street by people begging me to spectacularly send him into retirement.

Haye has mocked Bellew for taking a cameo role in the most recent film from the Rocky franchise, Creed.

Table topping St Helens will be looking to make it six wins from six games on Sunday, as they travel to West Yorkshire to face a resurgent Wakefield outfit.

The Saints will be without a number of key players for the clash, most notably Luke Walsh – who has been ruled out for six weeks with a calf injury.

Andy Raleigh and Jimmy Keinhorst are included in Wakefield’s 19-man squad by coach Richard Agar, who are looking for a third consecutive victory after wins over London and Catalan.

Both have been struggling with hamstring injuries but are fit to return for the Wildcats, replacing Jon Molloy and Matty Wildie.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook is banned, while Matty Dawson, Joe Greenwood, Mark Flanagan and Luke Thompson come in. Alex Walmsley is another notable absentee, whilst the Saints will have to make a late call on Sia Soliola, who is nursing an injury sustained during last weekend’s victory over Catalan.

The Squads
Wakefield: Mathers, Fox, Keinhorst, Lyne, Sykes, Godinet, Anderson, McShane, Lauitiiti, Kirmond, Collis, Ryan, Tautai, Smith, Raleigh, Siejka, Sammut, Scruton, Riley.

St Helens: Lomax, Makinson, Jones, Swift, Hohaia, Masoe, Roby, Soliola, Wilkin, Manu, Laffranchi, Flanagan, Amor, Wellens, Greenwood, Walker, Dawson, Richards, Thompson.

The Stats
Paul Wellens needs one point to reach 1,000 for his career. Wellens has scored 953 points (218 tries, 40 goals, 1 field goal) for St Helens since 1998. He has also scored points for Great Britain (18 – 4 tries, 1 goal), England (16 – 4 tries) and Lancashire (12 – 3 tries).

Peter Fox needs two tries to reach 150 career touchdowns. His total of 148 has been scored as follows: 40 for York (2005-2006), 56 for Hull KR (2008-2011), 45 for Wakefield (2007 & 2012-2014) and 7 for England (2008-2009).

The Prediction
Even without the likes of Walsh and Walmsley, this St Helens team are looking magnificent in 2014. It is hard to see how Wakefield could possibly topple the league leaders, even on their own turf.

Source: totalrl.com

See more here

With the win against Real Betis in the local derby, Sevilla picked up their third consecutive league win. This helped them to keep the pressure on Barcelona and Real Madrid in the title race from a 3-point gap.

Sevilla had occasional problems while playing in away games. But they are a strong home side lost just once in 11 matches this season. The remaining 10 saw them picking up 9 wins and a draw.

Athletic Bilbao are coming on the back of a comfortable 3-1 home win against a relegation threatened Granada. They have been inconsistent throughout the season and stay at 8th in the league table. The Europa League qualification spot is still up there for the grabs as 6th placed Eibar is a point above them.

Bilbao are without a win in their last 8 away games, a streak which saw them lose 6 times. Also, they have managed just 1 goal in their last 6 road games and scored none in the most recent four.

Sevilla vs Athletic Bilbao: Head-to-head stats

Sevilla have an excellent home record over Bilbao in league games, as they won in 10 of the last 13, while losing just once.

The last four meetings between the two at the Riazor has seen over 2.5 goals.

Bilbao did win the reverse fixture of the current campaign by a 3-1 margin at the start of the season.

Source: leaguelane.com

See more here

Team news

Man City: Gabriel Jesus (metatarsal) and Ilkay Gundogan (knee) remain long term absentees for the Blues. We’ll bring you more injury updates and team news ahead of this game as and when we get it.

Huddersfield: Team news will be available nearer the game

The last time

The teams played out a tight and tense 0-0 draw at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Man City v Huddersfield stats and facts

• The winner of the tie will go on to face Middlesbrough away in the quarter-finals.
• Yaya Toure is City’s leading scorer in the FA Cup this season with two goals so far
• City’s overall record against the Terriers in all competitions is 24 wins, 29 draws and 22 losses
• City defeated Huddersfield 10-1 in the league in November 1987
• Huddersfield are in third position in the Championship

Source: mancity.com

See more here

Defender Georgios Sarris should return to the Hamilton Accies squad for Tuesday’s visit by Aberdeen following a knee injury.

Midfielder Ali Crawford faces a fitness test, but Jesus Garcia Tena, Darren Lyon, Alex D’Acol, Louis Longridge and Shaun Want remain sidelined.

Aberdeen will again be without striker Jayden Stockley through injury.

Winger Jonny Hayes has been passed fit after going off late on against Ross County on Saturday.

Hamilton dropped to the bottom of the Premiership after Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s win over Rangers on Friday.

Aberdeen moved nine points clear of Rangers in second place after their 1-0 win over Ross County.

• Hamilton have won once in their last five outings – on penalties against Dunfermline Athletic in the Scottish Cup
• Aberdeen have won 10 of their last 11 games, their only defeat being by Celtic
• The Dons are seeking a sixth straight victory
• Aberdeen lost on their last visit to New Douglas Park – 1-0 in October

Hamilton Academical manager Martin Canning: “When you look at every other club in the bottom six or seven, they have been bottom at some point apart from us until now. “It doesn’t change anything. I am not trying to cover over anything. We are bottom because we have not won enough games, as simple as that. “But the performance levels have been relatively consistent. We haven’t been excellent one week and rubbish the next week. “Aberdeen are in a good run of form. We know it is a difficult task, they have a lot of attacking threat, but we have beaten them before and so you have to believe that we can do it again. “If we win tomorrow night before the other teams play, we could be a few places up the league, so it is still all to play for.”

Aberdeen goalkeeper Joe Lewis: “I don’t think there’s a danger of complacency in our squad. “We take it game by game. The work-rate that we put in this season, and especially recently, and the energy we have got in the team is fantastic. “We will look to continue doing that at the start of the game, look to play with intensity and a high tempo, as we do every game. “At the moment, it is working, we are approaching games well and getting the right results. “It’s easy to say ‘just do the same’, but we need to make sure we apply ourselves the same, prepare right, and I’m sure we will.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

See more here

Leicester’s caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare takes control of his first match since the sacking of Claudio Ranieri.

Defender Molla Wague will be absent with a shoulder injury.

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren could miss a third successive game because of a knee injury.

Daniel Sturridge is still suffering the effects of a virus and is also a major fitness doubt, but Ragnar Klavan has fully recovered from illness.

What the manager say:
Leicester City caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare: “In terms of getting teams prepared, I’d like to think my man-management style can do that. There are enough games there and this squad are good enough to get themselves out of this – that will be the message.

“Momentum is a big word in football. We had that last year. What I would say is they’ve trained well over the last few weeks especially. We’ve refocused ourselves.”

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: “Probably the [Leicester] players have to show a few things and they [will] want to. It is obvious to not let them.

“You saw the Champions League game [against Sevilla in midweek] and the reaction after they scored: it was like two different games before and after they scored.

“Maybe they can keep this and then we have to make it not too easy for them to bring it on the pitch or to not let their confidence grow.

“If we play our best, we will be difficult to play against whoever.”

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• Leicester won this fixture 2-0 last season with Jamie Vardy scoring twice, but that is their only victory in the last nine Premier League meetings (D2, L6).
• Liverpool claimed a 4-1 victory when these teams met in September and could beat the Foxes home and away in the same season for the first time since 2001-02.

Leicester City

• The Foxes have lost their last five league games – the only previous reigning top-flight champions to lose six in a row was Everton in 1928-29.
• Leicester have kept just two clean sheets in their last 22 games in all competitions, and none in their last 10.
• They are the only team in the top five European leagues not to have scored a league goal in 2017 – they have gone six games without a goal.
• Leicester could equal the club record of seven league matches without a goal, set in the old Division Two between November 1987 and January 1988.
• Jamie Vardy’s goal against Sevilla ended his nine-match barren streak. He has scored in just one of his last 18 Premier League games.

Liverpool

• Liverpool’s victory over Tottenham in their last match ended a winless run of five league games.
• The Reds have gone three matches without an away win in the Premier League (D2, L1).
• Sadio Mane has been directly involved in 15 Premier League goals, more than any other Liverpool player this season (11 goals, four assists).
• Adam Lallana has failed to score or provide an assist in his six league appearances in 2017 after supplying four goals and four assists in his final seven league matches last year.

Source: bbc.co.uk

See more here

Birmingham City make the short trip across the West Midlands to Molineux to take on Paul Lambert’s Wolves on Friday night.

Both sides have ended up on the losing side in their last three Championship outings.

This is a hugely important game for the local rivals and not just because it’s a derby.

A Wolves win would take them two points behind Gianfranco Zola’s side, with two games in hand and another defeat for Blues would crank up the pressure even more on the Italian.

Wolves currently have this season’s bragging rights over Birmingham after beating Blues 3-1 at St. Andrew’s back in August.

Blues will be hopeful that Lukas Jutkiewicz recovers from the hamstring injury which ruled him out of the 4-1 home defeat to Queens Park Rangers last weekend.

Cheick Keita could be available after picking up a head injury last week. Jacques Maghoma could also come into contention.

Blues will also be boosted by the return of David Davis and Craig Gardner following suspensions.

Wolves are awaiting a fitness bulletin on Nouha Dicko.

He has been sidelined by a hamstring problem and has missed the last two games.

Joe Mason is still suffering from a hernia so the game against Blues will probably come too soon.

Source: birminghammail.co.uk

See more here

Thursday’s game at Wembley is sold out and striker Harry Kane believes Spurs have to try to make the national stadium their home.

Spurs have until the end of March to confirm whether they will play all their home matches at Wembley next season, with the plan to move back into their redeveloped stadium at the start of the 2018-19 campaign.

“We don’t know what we are doing next season, so we want to make it as good for us as possible and win as many games as we can there and get that confidence going,” said the 23-year-old.

“The more we play there, the further we will be going in competitions. It is important we try to do that.”

Kane’s hat-trick helped the North London club to their first win in four games with a 3-0 win over Fulham in the FA Cup on Sunday.

“Everyone is calling it a blip,” he said. “It is one game away to Liverpool that we lost and away at Gent, but that is one we can turn around.

“If we win on Thursday it makes it a lot sweeter and it doesn’t seem as bad.

“Obviously we are not going to play the whole season perfectly – there are going to be ups and downs. It is about limiting them and hopefully we are on the up for the rest of the season.”

Gent manager Hein Vanhaezebrouck says the occasion will be ‘a fantastic moment’ for his club and team.

“We’ll try to play our game as usual and I’m confident we’ll show something in this fantastic stadium. It’s good we’ll be able to train here already,” he said.

“I didn’t think Tottenham underestimated us in the first game, they won’t underestimate us either on Thursday.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

See more here

The Champions League, bizarrely, has been the one refuge for Leicester this season.

The reigning Premier League champions have put up an awful defence of their title and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Millwall, however they’ve been going toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite.

Since their last Champions League game things have turned much more sour though for Claudio Ranieri’s team, with relegation now a real prospect. So will they be able to rediscover that form that saw them top Group G? Or will Sevilla ramp up the growing pressure on the Tinker Man? Here’s all you ought to know.

It’s a big match for…

Leicester’s championship winning heroes. The likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater and Wes Morgan have been so disappointing this season after capturing the hearts of the football loving world last season. Tonight is a chance for them to prove there is more to them than a single season of incredible overachievement. They can also relieve some pressure on Ranieri, the man they owe so much for guiding them to the title.

Source: metro.co.uk

See more here