Tottenham predicted line-up vs. Wolves: four major changes made as £138m quartet miss out

Tottenham suffered their first loss of the Premier League campaign in dramatic fashion against Chelsea on Monday evening. Having opened the scoring in the sixth minute, Ange Postecoglou's men would eventually fall to a 4-1 defeat, but not before enduring two red cards and a couple of potentially costly injury blows.

This weekend, Spurs travel to face Wolves in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off, and will be hoping for better fortunes as they look to leapfrog Manchester City at the top of the table once more. They will have to do so with a relatively threadbare defence, however, with three of their usual starting backline likely to miss out.

As for Wolves, Gary O'Neil's men have been slowly improving in recent weeks, recording an unbeaten run of four matches before succumbing to a stoppage time decider in their shock 2-1 defeat against Sheffield United last time out. That result was the Blades' first league win of the season, and ensured that Wanderers stayed in the bottom half of the table, six points clear of the relegation zone. But how will they line up against Spurs on Saturday? We've taken a closer look at both sides' respective team news below...

Tottenham Team News

Things could hardly have gone worse for Tottenham on Monday evening with regard to personnel issues. Not only did Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie both receive red cards for various misdemeanours, ruling them out of Saturday's trip to Wolves, but summer signing Micky van de Ven also went off with a concerning hamstring injury. It is understood that the centre-back will not require surgery, but he is still facing a stint on the sidelines. To intensify matters, Ben Davies might also be touch-and-go this weekend due to an ankle problem.

Elsewhere, James Maddison was also withdrawn due to an ankle complaint, and while it has been suggested that his substitution was more precautionary than it initially appeared, there are still doubts over whether or not he will feature again before the international break later this month.

This glut of absences only piles more misery on Spurs, who were already contending with a number of long-term omissions. Ivan Perisic and Manor Solomon are not expected to play again this year, while Ryan Sessegnon and Richarlison are also facing lengthy periods on the treatment table. All in all, then, Tottenham could be missing as many as nine first team players on Saturday afternoon.

Tottenham Predicted XI

Guglielmo Vicario; Pedro Porro, Eric Dier, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Emerson Royal; Pape Matar Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Brennan Johnson; Son Heung-min.

Wolves Team News

The big injury news for Wolves concerns Pedro Neto, who was stretchered off during the closing stages of the recent 2-2 draw with Newcastle United with a hamstring complaint. Addressing the winger’s absence, which is expected to keep him out for a number of weeks, O’Neil said: “We are hopeful that Pedro won’t be missing for long. He was moving around in the dressing room. Obviously hamstring injuries have very different levels of severity, so we’re hoping it’s on the smaller side.”

Elsewhere, Joe Hodge and Hugo Bueno are both sidelined, but there is better news regarding summer signing Jean-Recner Bellegarde, who returned last weekend to get on the scoresheet against Sheffield United.

Wolves Predicted XI

Jose Sa; Nelson Semedo, Max Kilman, Craig Dawson, Toti Gomes; Hwang Hee-chan, Mario Lemina, Jean-Recner Bellegarde, Rayan Ait-Nouri; Matheus Cunha, Sasa Kalajdzic.