5 reasons Tottenham will bury Swansea

5. Swansea lack pace

There’s been a lot of pre-match chatter about former Spurs who now occupy the Swansea starting XI. In particular, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Kyle Naughton will be anxious to show well at White Hart Lane.

More from Playing for 90

• Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
• Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
• Barcelona put five past Real Betis
• Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
• Baffling Liga MX ruling strips Puebla of a hard-earned victory

Unfortunately for that pairing, neither is blessed with a tremendous amount of pace. That’s going to be problematic on Saturday. The returning Danny Rose and Son Heung-Min should enjoy a great deal of success down the left flank.

For all of Sigurdsson’s strengths, he is not a fast player. He’ll struggle mightily to track back against either Son or Rose. Naughton has a little more pace, but he’s probably a slower than average right back. In particular, I’d expect Rose to try to take him on at every opportunity.

Speed isn’t everything in a football match, but it’s going to be important in this one. Look for Tottenham to attack Swansea’s right flank early and often. The Swans are going to struggle to cope with Spurs’ pace on that side of the pitch.