While Liverpool is leading the Premier League 2024 (mainly thanks to Manchester City’s bad momentum, with Pep Guardiola’s team seemingly losing its rhythm), the fight for Champions League places is getting more and more interesting. The top four teams in the standings get the right to participate in Europe’s most competitive football tournament, although the fourth has to get through the preliminary round.
Right now, behind the Reds, are Arsenal, Chelsea and City. In fifth position we find Brighton & Hove Albion, in sixth the surprise Nottingham and in seventh there is Tottenham Hotspurs, a team that is getting hotter week after week, openly aiming for a place in the UCL.
Can Tottenham best its competition and compete in the next UCL?
The Premier League season is intensifying. Ange Postecoglou’s team recently won a one-sided match against Man City, showing how well they can play football. Recent results tell us the story of a focused side, very solid and sitting only three points behind Brighton & Hove and Citizens. The chase is clearly on for the Spurs, who would really like to play for the silverware next year.
Despite a shaky start, Tottenham is determined to win as many games as possible, in order to keep qualification hopes alive until the very end. In this quite uncertain situation, fans can choose to stay always up-to-date on Premier League odds at Oddschecker.com, one of the best iGaming comparison sites which provides a comprehensive analysis of available betting options, allowing them to track the progress made, gameday after gameday, by the side from North London.
The fight for the UCL spots could become very interesting if the teams involved can keep it so close for the remainder of the season, especially because they are all from London, so direct clashes could be pretty heated, in the next months.
Spurs’ key injuries and star players
Of course, in order to actually compete for the Champions League, Tottenham needs to find a goalkeeping solution. Their starter, the Italian Guglielmo Vicario, underwent surgery to his fractured right ankle and is bound to lose a lot of games during his recovery. At the moment, the second lines seem not that trustworthy. Neither Fraser Forster, nor Brandon Austin or Alfie Whiteman are ready to take the place of a true number one GK. The club may very well find a solution on the market, maybe bringing in Lille’s last man, Lucas Chevalier. Scouts from all over Europe consider him the next big player coming from Ligue 1 and he would be delighted to try his luck in the Premier League.
Postecoglou knows well that he can’t afford to leave the goalkeeping issue unsolved, or he risks losing some games because of a subpar player playing in a very delicate position. The front office probably agrees with him, especially in this moment, where some stars are beginning to look red-hot: James Maddison is playing as well as he ever did, as everyone who watched the match against Manchester City can confirm, while Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur are making things easy for teammates with their field vision. The forwards are also playing quite well: Heung-Min Son already scored three times and Brennan Johnson found the back of the net five times.
There is also bad news regarding Wilson Odobert, the young French winger brought in last summer to strengthen a very important position in the game as we play it today. Sadly, just like Vicario, he underwent surgery on his right hamstring, and will not be available for quite some weeks.
