Spooky Express previews Sunday's Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, including team news, possible lineups and betting predictions. 

Spurs are back in Premier League action this Sunday when they welcome fellow top-four hopefuls Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

Aston Villa claimed a league double (their first since 1995-96) over Tottenham last season. The Villans earned a 2-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on New Year's Day with second-half goals from Emiliano Buendía and Douglas Luiz. 

Now, the Birmingham outfit are bidding to claim three consecutive wins over their North London opponents for the first time since the mid-90's, when they managed to win four in a row between November 1994 and January 1996. 

Spurs are out of European competitions for the first time since 2009-10 and Harry Kane's departure made their summer even more miserable. 

However, the implementation of Angeball in the absence of the club's all-time leading goalscorer won the admiration of the home supporters, who are happy to embrace Postecoglou's philosophy. As a result, the North London side have enjoyed their best ten-game start to a Premier League season this millennium. 

Tottenham Hotspur will be eager to get back on track as they suffered an unfortunate 2-1 last-gasp defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers last time out. Being the undisputed favorites for their trip to West Midlands, Ange Postecoglou's men took the lead early in the match but stoppage-time goals from Pablo Sarabia and Mario Lemina secured an impressive comeback victory for the Wolves at the Molineux Stadium. 

Brennan Johnson's early strike at Wolves at least ensured that Tottenham would extend their Premier League scoring streak to a whopping 24 games since a 1-0 defeat to the same opponents in early-March, and not since January's North London derby loss to Arsenal have they failed to score in a Premier League home match. 

It was Tottenham's second consecutive loss as they also lost 4-1 to London rivals Chelsea earlier in the week, but the whole stadium was backing their wholehearted effort since Spurs were down to 10 men in the first half and to make things even worse, Destiny Udogie was their second player to be sent off early in the second half.  

The defeat against Chelsea marked the end of their unbeaten start to life under Ange Postecoglou in the Premier League. The Australian manager may have a penny for his thoughts as the latest defeat at Wolves could have been heavier had the home side been able to convert their earlier opportunities.

Anyway, The Lillywhites sit in fourth place on 26 points, four points behind table-topping Arsenal, who are now top of the table following Man City's 1-1 draw with Liverpool early on Saturday. With that said, a victory over one of the in-form teams this season will be quite a statement, given the huge number of missing first-team players. 

The aforementioned defeat against Chelsea triggered a disastrous string of events for Spurs. Dutch defender Micky van de Ven and England playmaker James Maddison both picked up bad injuries with the influential duo not expected to feature again until 2024.

Furthermore, Cristian Romero was shown a straight red card and the Argentina centre-back should return against West Ham on December 7. 

Postecoglou will hope to have Pape Matar Sarr available for selection for Sunday's welcome of Aston Villa, while fellow midfielder Yves Bissouma picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Wolves and the Malian midfielder will now serve a suspension. 

Should Sarr is not fit to play, Postecoglou is glad to welcome Rodrigo Bentancur back to the fold and the Uruguayan midfielder is tipped to start alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the middle, with Giovani Lo Celso in a more advanced role. 

With his starting XI significantly affected, Ben Davies and Eric Dier were deployed in the centre of defense and that will likely remain the case for the next two games, unless Postecoglou opts to bring in talented youngster Ashley Phillips. 

On a positive note, Son Heung-Min revitalized his career under Ange Postecoglou and will be eager to inspire his teammates on Sunday. 

The 31-year-old South Korean ace wasn't able to score against Chelsea and Wolves but he remains one of the leading attackers in the Premier League. Son scored three goals in his country's wins over Singapore and China in the Asian World Cup qualifiers. 

Having won six of their last eight Premier League matches, Aston Villa sit fifth in the table, only one point behind their opponents in fourth. Thus, Villa are sitting 13 points better off than at the same stage last season before Unai Emery's appointment.

This clearly means that Villa have an opportunity to sneak inside the top four should they manage to take advantage of Tottenham's selection crisis and they win on their trip to North London. 

Spread across two competitions, Aston Villa returned to winning ways with a 3-1 home win over Fulham last time out. It was a much-needed victory following their 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest earlier this month as Unai Emery's side have shown they're mentally stable in their bid to make a surprise top-four challenge this term. 

The success against Fulham marked Villa's 13^th consecutive home win in the league, whereas they haven't been really great on the road. Unai Emery's men have won just two of their six league games away from Villa Park this season and will need to improve their performances from now on if they are to be competitive.  

All in all, only two of Aston Villa's last 10 away games in the Premier League have ended in victory - although their most recent one was a 1-0 beating of Chelsea, while they already spoiled Tottenham's New Year's party with a 2-0 win in North London on the first day of 2023.

Aston Villa are set for a home clash with Polish side Legia Warsaw in the UEFA Europa Conference League on Thursday before the busy December schedule, which starts with a visit to Bournemouth next weekend. The trip to the south coast will be a warm up before the back-to-back home matches with Manchester City and Arsenal within four days, as Villa could either boost their top-four credentials or simply crumble. 

Ollie Watkins featured in England's Euro 2024 qualifier against North Macedonia earlier this week and the centre-forward will be looking to continue and even better his form if he is to be included in Gareth Southgate's Euro 2024 squad next summer. 

Douglas Luiz is another standout performer in Unai Emery's setup and the Brazilian midfielder will play a pivotal role on Sunday afternoon, with summer signing Youri Tielemans also pushing for a start. The Belgian midfielder has featured in each of Aston Villa's 12 top-flight games this term, but has started just one of them. 

Matty Cash was not able to play for Poland due to a shoulder problem, although the right-back's absence was thought to have been more precautionary than anything else, while Brazilian defender Diego Carlos will need assessing after a minor injury kept him out of the Fulham game.

England defender Tyrone Mings and Argentine playmaker Emiliano Buendia remain on the long road to recovery from knee injuries. 

However, Unai Emery stated earlier this month that Jacob Ramsey should resume training after the international break, although the England U21 international will hardly get anything more than a spot on the bench once he's fully fit.

Tottenham's current selection crisis also represents an opportunity as Postecoglou will see which players are willing to fight for their place in the team. 

But to be fair, Spurs have also shown they can be got at and, with the array of attacking options Aston Villa have at their disposal, we think the Villans stand a chance of getting something this weekend. 

Ollie Watkins and summer signing Moussa Diaby have struck up a well-operating partnership in the past few months, while other players have been largely impressive too.

Watkins failed to score in either of Villa's wins over Tottenham last season but the forward could add to his tally on Sunday, having already scored two goals in his previous four appearances against Spurs.