Not the game for Barker. I know it's fashionable to leave Yaya out of predicted first XIs these days but Barker would be hauled off at half-time if he started - remember his loan move to Rotherham was terminated a month ago? Yeah. There's time yet for Barker to make a name for himself, but not Sunday. We should go with a 4-1-2-1-2 formation with a packed midfield, overlapping full backs and Sterling in the hole. It's easily adaptable to 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 depending on how the game is panning out and it's the most ideal way to compensate for our shortage of attacking midfielders. Liverpool pushed us all the way in 2014 with Henderson, Gerrard and Coutinho in a three behind Sterling, who supported Suarez and Sturridge.
I'm fearing the worst for this game, in all honesty. Spurs have suddenly found this ability to win comfortably away from home (3 wins, 2 draws from their last five away games in the league) and our performances have been patchy for months now. If there was ever a time for Pellegrini to stop being so stubborn in big games and turn our season around then Sunday has to be it, but I think after three years we'd have seen signs of that by now. We'll no doubt set up 4-4-2 with Toure and Fernandinho in the middle with Sterling and Delph on the wings or something, and we'll be overrun. Spurs are an energetic, technical and athletic team with some genuinely wonderful young players, Alli especially, and a manager we seem to hate playing against (we usually beat Pochettino's teams comfortably on paper but the performances are never convincing).
I'm hoping for a 2-2 draw and an Arsenal win over Leicester just so we can stay in touch.