Rooney in and Bale out gives Man Utd big edge at Spurs
Published:Two big bits of injury news appear to have swung the outcome of Manchester United’s away trip to Tottenham in the favour of the visitors, who can be backed at 6/4 to end the Premier League title challenge of Spurs this season for good.
Tottenham are currently ten points adrift of table-toppers Manchester City with 12 games to go, but a winning run could see them make a late swoop on the title.
A home victory over Manchester United is pivotal in this quest, but their chances of success have been hit by the hammer blow that Gareth Bale is almost certain to miss out.
Bale suffered a grade one tear to his hamstring training with Wales in midweek and this is an injury where the recovery time tends to be about a fortnight.
The early feeling is that missing Bale’s pace and directness will be a big blow to Tottenham’s attacking impetus, but the statistics suggest that it may not be as big a problem as feared.
Tottenham have only lost a tenth of their games without Bale this season, while losing double that percentage with him, while they have kept clean sheets in seven of the nine fixtures where he has not participated.
It is 9/5 that Tottenham beat Manchester United and 11/4 that they ensure that they cannot lose by keeping a clean sheet.
With Spurs suffering without Bale, Manchester United have had some brighter news with Wayne Rooney available to return after missing their last two matches with a throat infection.
There are no such tribulations as to the Red Devils being far more likely to win with Rooney available, winning over three-quarters of their fixtures with him and only 36 per cent without him this season.
Rooney is 9/2 to open the scoring at White Hart Lane and 6/5 to strike at any time in the 90 minutes.
