Tottenham predicted XI vs Aston Villa: Mathys Tel axed as De Zerbi enacts six changes
Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa clash in a battle of winless teams on Saturday.
Indeed, both Spurs and Villa are both still searching for their first Premier League wins of 2026-27.
Roberto De Zerbi's side sit one point and two places above Unai Emery's men, and are unbeaten in their last two league outings.
Spurs are yet to find the net in the league this term, however, whilst the Villa Park outfit got off the mark against Nottingham Forest.
Fresh off the back of a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool, De Zerbi will be demanding a big response from his side this weekend.
Tottenham News predicts how Spurs' starting lineup will look when Villa come to town for a 12:30pm kick-off this Saturday.
Roberto De Zerbi rings defensive changes for Tottenham vs Aston Villa
Liverpool offered the chance for some rotation, but De Zerbi still put out a fairly strong side at Anfield.
Martin Dubravka started in goal, but Antonin Kinsky could reclaim his place as Tottenham's number one shot-stopper against Villa.
Archie Gray can keep his spot at right-back, but Destiny Udogie's poor Liverpool display may see Andy Robertson return to the XI.
As per FotMob, Udogie played just 13 accurate passes against Liverpool, whilst also being dispossessed and dribbles past on one occasion each.
Meanwhile, De Zerbi could scrap his centre-back pairing of Tosin Adarabioyo and Marcos Senesi that started on Merseyside.
In their places, Micky van de Ven and Jan Paul van Hecke could rekindle their centre-back partnership on Saturday.
Moving into midfield, De Zerbi should see two obvious candidates for an Aston Villa benching this weekend.
Lucas Bergvall to keep his place in Spurs midfield
Starting in central midfield, Lucas Bergvall should have done enough to retain his place in the side after his Liverpool performance.
He created the joint-most chances (three) of any player on Tuesday, whilst also completing 96 per cent of his passes and winning seven ground duels.
The same may not be said for Rodrigo Bentancur, whose underwhelming evening could see him replaced by Mateus Fernandes.
Conor Gallagher could keep his spot in the side after netting at Anfield, as might Mohammed Kudus who also looked bright.
Mathys Tel, however, banked yet another hugely frustrating performance last time out in the midweek loss to Liverpool, and could be axed in favour of Savio down the left.
Tel completed just 71 per cent of his passes accurately, created zero chances, was dispossessed five times and won a mere 42 per cent of his ground duels.
That just leaves the striker position to sort out, and De Zerbi has an interesting call to make here.
None of Tottenham's strikers particularly deserve to start
If there's one position group that really isn't firing for Tottenham at present, it's the centre-forward department.
Dominic Solanke is in the worst vein of form in his entire Spurs career, whilst Richarlison appears to have been outcast by De Zerbi.
That just leaves new signing Omar Marmoush, who has perhaps been the brightest of an otherwise extremely poor group so far this term.
As such, the Egyptian could be tasked with leading the line again despite a series of poor performances this month.
Tottenham predicted XI vs Aston Villa: Kinsky; Gray, Van de Ven, Van Hecke, Robertson; Fernandes, Bergvall; Gallagher, Kudus, Savio; Marmoush