Tottenham will clinch comfortable Europa League win over AZ Alkmaar | Football
Tottenham are a polarising team – even among their own supporters.
There are fans who are not sure if Ange Postecoglou has got what it takes to be a top, top manager in the Premier League and there were plenty of moans and groans when Spurs threw away a two-goal half-time lead at Brighton to lose 3-2 following an absolute stinker of a performance after the break.
Critics suggest he has one way of playing and hasn’t the tactical smarts to make key changes but those notions were blown away by the clever switch he made during the interval in last Saturday’s 4-1 derby success against West Ham.
Big Ange replaced James Maddison with Pape Sarr and the midfielder ruled the roost as Tottenham scored three goals in seven minutes to blow away the Hammers.
Spurs have now won six times in their last seven matches in all competitions, including a 3-0 victory over Quarabag in the Europa League when they were reduced to ten men after Radu Dragusin was sent off after just eight minutes.
In the league, they have dominated six of the last eight halves of football they have played, losing that shocker to the Seagulls and maybe sharing the opening 45 minutes with West Ham.
They are not too far off being an extremely good side, especially with exciting youngsters Mikey Moore, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Will Lankshear waiting in the wings to stamp their authority on proceedings, and they will be too good for AZ Alkmaar in north London even if Postecoglou makes significant changes to his starting line-up.
Their defence is much maligned as well, having conceded eight goals in eight league games which is an identical record to Arsenal, who are considered to have a significantly superior backline.
Tottenham are 6/5 with Unibet and BetUK to triumph by more than one goal against their Dutch opponents and fit-again Richarlison is 9/2 with Paddy Power, Betfair and bet365 to break the deadlock and 13/10 with the latter to score at any time.
Manchester United, who showed improvement in the 2-1 win against Brentford at Old Trafford at the weekend are 7/5 with Sky Bet to win at Fenerbahce where Marcus Rashford is 13/5 to score at any time, and Chelsea, who have the depth in their squad to make wholesale changes, are the same price to lead HT/FT at Panathinaikos.
Dream World Series match-up can go the distance
Major League Baseball got its dream World Series with the LA Dodgers facing the New York Yankees in a best-of-seven series which starts in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It’s West Coast v East Coast as the two biggest spenders from America’s two biggest television markets battle it out for the first time since 1981. Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts are the two star names for the Dodgers with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, or $$$oto as he will be known when making more than £600million as a free agent before Christmas, lining up for the Bronx Bombers.
The difference between two evenly matched teams is that the Yankees have the better starting pitching and William Hill offer 2/1 it goes all the way to game seven. A 4-3 Yankees victory, which will give them a 28th title and a ninth World Series success in 11 showdowns with the Dodgers, is 7/2 with BetUK and Unibet.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton has hit a record 16 post-season home runs, including four in five games against the Cleveland Guardians to take the Yankees to the decider, and he is 9/1 with Betfred to be the MVP.
• English raider March on Freddie clocked the fastest time in the first round of the Irish Greyhound Derby and is 6/1 with sponsors BoyleSports to win next month’s final at Shelbourne Park in Dublin. BoyleSports Bob, second in this year’s English Derby final, is 12/1 with bet365 and Betfred while Cheap Sandwiches looks tasty at 16/1 with BoyleSports and Betfred. Singalong Dolly appeals each-way at 50/1 with bet365.
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