Five EPL Team of the Week stars set to trade tackles in Spurs vs Man Utd blockbuster | OneFootball

Premier League mid-table rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United were victorious at the weekend, setting themselves up perfectly for Thursday’s League Cup blockbuster.

Spurs ran riot at St Mary’s Stadium, trouncing basement boys Southampton 5-0 despite fielding a makeshift backline featuring Djed Spence and Archie Gray.

Both starlets made BBC pundit Troy Deeney’s Premier League Team of the Week, joining goalscorer Pape Matar Sarr in last weekend’s Best XI.

Son Heung-min’s exclusion was a surprise, considering the Tottenham captain tallied a goal and two assists in a dominant first-half performance from Ange Postecoglou’s side.

In addition to securing a precious win amid growing pressure, Postecoglou received a timely confidence boost ahead of a quarter-final tie against Man Utd.

Ruben Amorim’s charges, on the other hand, did the unthinkable at the Etihad Stadium.

Trailing perennial champions Manchester City by a goal heading into the final five minutes, United pulled off one of the most memorable comebacks in recent memory to claim a 2-1 win on Sunday.

Amad Diallo emerged as the architect of an epic turnaround on City’s home ground, single-handedly turning the game on its head in only two minutes.

He first drew a penalty by the sheer power of will, intercepting Matheus Nunes’ wayward back pass before forcing the Portuguese star to take him down in the box.

A couple of moments after Bruno Fernandes converted the spot-kick, Diallo netted a match-winner, pouncing on Lisandro Martinez’s hopeful long ball before finishing with aplomb.

Manuel Ugarte’s tireless work in the middle of the park didn’t go unnoticed by Deeney, who paired the Uruguayan with Sarr in the double pivot of his 4-2-3-1 set-up.

Like Tottenham and Man Utd, 12th-placed Newcastle United returned to the win column on Gameweek 16 with a scintillating 4-0 thumping of Leicester City at St James’ Park.

Jacob Murphy’s double earned him a place on the left wing, while Alexander Isak’s superb second-half showing made Deeney call him the ‘best Premier League striker at this moment in time.’