PREVIEW: Spurs’ Thomas Frank looks to ease pressure against former club Brentford | OneFootball

Eleventh place Tottenham Hotspur will host 13th place Brentford in the Premier League, with Thomas Frank managing against his former Bees side for the first time.

The Dane was heralded for his tactical adaptability and ability to overperform when he was Brentford boss. The Dane took the West London side to the brink of Europe over his tenure as manager, overseeing a revolution within the club that has set them up to be a competitive Premier League side for years to come.

Despite the plaudits rained on him as Brentford boss, he now faces a critical moment in his Spurs career just 14 league games into the season. His spurs side are without a win in their last five and have sunk to poor performances at home to Fulham, away at Arsenal and at home to Chelsea. These results have left the Europa League winners in 11th.

A Cristian Romero bicycle kick in the dying minutes at St. James’ Park may prove to be the catalyst that springs this Spurs team into life, however that 2-2 draw away at Newcastle once again showed how uninspiring they have been at times this season. Only Bournemouth, Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have a worse record over their last five games in the Premier League.

Where Brentford are concerned, their recent form paints a picture of inconsistency. With three wins and three losses in their last six games, they’re an unpredictable quantity, but currently sit a comfortable seven points clear of the relegation places. When Frank left Brentford in the summer, he was replaced by Keith Andrews from within the club, much to the surprise of pundits and Premier League fans alike. That, coupled with the sale of Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa meant many tipped the Bees to be certainties for relegation. However as usual, Brentford have completely flipped the script.

Sitting in 13th place and with new stars Igor Thiago and Dango Ouattara firing on all cylinders, Brentford head to Spurs with the necessary confidence they can get a result – and maybe even hammer a nail into their former boss’ North London coffin.

Spurs have no new injury concerns heading into Saturdays game; Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, Yves Bissouma and Radu Drăgușin are all expected to be absent until the new year. Frank made the brave decision to drop Micky van de Ven against Newcastle so the Dutch centre-half may return to the back line.

Brentford rested top scorer Thiago against Arsenal so the Brazilian will be fully prepared to feature. Brentford are expected to return to a full strength side after resting plenty of players at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, with Nathan Collins, Jordan Henderson and Mikel Damsgaard all set to return.

The game will kick off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 15:00 GMT on Saturday December 6, and will not be broadcast live in the UK.

Predicted line-ups

BRE: Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Yarmolyuk, Henderson; Ouattara, Damsgaard, Schade; Thiago