Tottenham v Manchester United preview: Jose Mourinho has selection 'headache'

Jose Mourinho says he has a good selection problem ahead of Manchester United's trip to Wembley to take on Tottenham on Wednesday.

With the arrival of Alexis Sanchez, Mourinho feels he might have trouble fitting all of his big-name players into the starting line-up against Spurs on Wednesday.

"Everything is good," Mourinho said. "The real headache is when you don't have the good players so when you have so many injuries, you are in trouble.

"When almost everybody is available and the quality is high, these are the good problems."

Unlike their opponents, Tottenham are yet to make a signing this month although Sky sources understand that Lucas Moura is undergoing a medical at the club's training ground ahead of a £25m move from PSG.

Addressing the transfer rumours, Pochettino said: "When you sign a player you expect you are right and they're a success, and have a massive impact on the team. Always that's the expectation."

Fernando Llorente only joined Spurs on deadline day in the summer but he has been linked with a move to Chelsea after scoring just twice in 20 games for the club.

However, Pochettino insisted he remains part of his plans, saying: "Fernando is our player and I don't know anything about that.

"I cannot speak about rumours, he played the last game against Newport, he's one player that is in the squad like different players and he's in our plan."

Team news

Toby Alderweireld (hamstring), Christian Eriksen (illness), Erik Lamela (gluteus muscle), Hugo Lloris (illness) & Danny Rose (knee) - are all in contention having trained this week.

Alderweireld could be in line for his first appearance since November after overcoming a hamstring injury picked up during the 3-1 win over Real Madrid.

Serge Aurier (calf) and Harry Winks (ankle) have been continuing their respective recoveries with field-based reconditioning.

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Sanchez is set to make his first Premier League appearance for Manchester United after making his debut in the FA Cup fourth-round win at Yeovil on Friday.

United have no fresh injury concerns, meaning that the long-term casualties of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (knee) and defender Eric Bailly (ankle) are the only absentees.

Opta stats

• Tottenham's defeat in the reverse fixture earlier this season was their 80th in league competition against Manchester United - 11 more defeats than versus any other opponent.
• Spurs have won two of their seven Premier League matches against Manchester United under Mauricio Pochettino (D1 L4), as many as they'd won across their previous 26 games against the United, spanning eight different managers (Glenn Hoddle, David Pleat, Jacques Santini, Martin Jol, Juande Ramos, Harry Redknapp, Andre Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood).
• Tottenham have won their last two home league games against Manchester United - they last won three consecutively against them back in September 1966.
• Spurs have picked up just three points in their five games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd this season (W1 D0 L4), fewer than any other 'big six' side in these fixtures.
• No team are on a current longer unbeaten run in the Premier League than Manchester United (8).
• Mauricio Pochettino is unbeaten in his last three Premier League home games against Jose Mourinho (W2 D1), winning 5-3 against Chelsea in January 2015, and in this exact fixture in May last season.
• Alexis Sanchez could make his Premier League debut for Man Utd in this game; he scored in Arsenal's 2-0 win against Spurs in November, and could become the third player to score against them for two different clubs in the same Premier League season after Eric Cantona in 1992-93 and Benito Carbone in 1999-00.

Merson's prediction

I watched United at Burnley and they were very efficient. They weren't really playing free-flowing attacking football and they struggled to break Burnley down. This will be a difficult game for them because I just can't see how they will outscore Spurs.

Jose Mourinho will go to Wembley and set his side up not to get beat. With Alexis Sanchez on board that little bit of extra quality gives them a big chance but if Tottenham can get their full strength side out they'll be very difficult to stop.

PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1

Betting

Tottenham are Sky Bet's 13/10 favourites for the victory with Manchester United priced at 21/10 while the draw is a 12/5 chance.

Harry Kane heads the goalscorer betting and is enhanced from 3/1 to 4/1 to break the deadlock in Sky Bet's Price Boosts, while Romelu Lukaku (11/2) is closely followed by Alexis Sanchez (6/1) on the visitors' side of the market.

Wednesday night's Premier League clashes make up the midweek Super 6 line-up, with the £1m still to be won.

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