By Emmanuel Okogba

Manchester United suffered one of their heaviest defeat this season in the 4-1 thumping at their city rivals, Man City on Sunday and they head into a decisive week that has a couple of tough games to negotiate. 

With the trio of Ronaldo, Cavani and Varane who missed last week game hopefully available, United will hope to complete their season double over the Conte’s men who are coming into the game on the back of an impressive 5-0 demolition of Frank Lampard’s Everton. 

Rangnick will also have to find a way to deal with discontented players like Marcus Rashford who is already eyeing a move away from the club as a result of reduced game time. The German had in a pre-game conference said the player was free to leave when the transfer window opens if he and his agent are thinking in that direction. 

The England forward has just four goals in 18 appearances coming on as a substitute in nine of those matches. 

“I mean we are fully aware of the importance of tomorrow’s game [against Tottenham] and the one on Tuesday [Atletico]”, Rangnick said on Friday in the build-up to Saturday’s late kick-off.

We have to win that game [Tottenham], we are aware of that and we had a good week of training. The players are also fully aware of the importance of the game. The focus is there. The togetherness was there in the training in the training sessions.”

Who’s OUT

Rangnick said Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay are still doubts for Spurs. 

“We will still miss out Luke Shaw who tested positive for Covid and Scott is a question mark. He has some problems with his calf. 

• Ronaldo says his son wanting to play with him could delay his retirement

“He will most likely miss the Spurs game because risking him means he will definitely the game on Tuesday, so that’s why I tend to be careful when it’s muscular issues, especially the calf. 

Rangnick said he has no idea if Ronaldo is happy at the club or not. 

Tottenham coach, Antonio Conte urged his players to be more ambitious and have a good vision if they want to win the Premier League. 

Tottenham’s Monday victory over Everton was their second biggest win margin in the league this season.

It ended 3-0 in favour of the Red Devils when both sides met in the first at Tottenham Hotspur stadium last October

Head to Head

United has won 37 of their 59 previous meetings. Spurs has just 10 and both sides have shared the points on 12 occasions.

Spur last win over United was 6-1 drubbing their last time out at Old Trafford in October of 2020.

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