Tottenham v Marseille: Goals the smart bet on thrilling night in London

Spurs looking typical Conte

Tottenham v Marseille
Wed, 20:00
Live on BT Sport 3

Tottenham fans will be confident that their side can collect all three points here but there are no guarantees that Antonio Conte's players will have everything their own way.

Spurs have made an excellent start to the season so it's no surprise to find them at an odds-on price to win at home to the Ligue 1 visitors

Tottenham are W4-D2-L0 from their opening six matches of 2022-23 and head into this match on the back of their morale-boosting 2-1 home win over London rivals Fulham at the weekend.

Conte always felt that this would be the season that supporters would start to see his 'project' take shape and that is exactly what we appear to be witnessing.

A home victory would be no surprise given the confidence and quality with which Tottenham have started the campaign.

Tudor is king in Marseille

Yet visitors Marseille will be no pushovers as a mini-revolution of their own has been taking place on the south coast of France.

Manager Jorge Sampaoli left earlier this summer, to be replaced by Igor Tudor, the former Juventus defender.

Tudor is a plain-speaking manager that insists on his players working hard all over the pitch so Marseille will be combative opponents.

Under the leadership of president Pablo Longoria they have transformed their squad over the summer, the intention being to build a group of players big and strong enough to maintain a top-three position in the league while also being competitive in the Champions League group phase.

On this front Longoria has been successful. Marseille have two good players in nearly every position so can rotate as and when they need during the hectic autumn schedule of games.

The players to look out for in the Marseille ranks are Dimitri Payet, a familiar face to English fans thanks to his brief yet brilliant spell as a West Ham player.

If he starts, Jonathan Clauss will be a threat on the right flank. Capped for the first time by France this year, he is a £9m summer buy from Lens and perfectly suited to his wing-back role.

One player that will be keen to make his mark is Matteo Guendouzi. The former Arsenal midfielder - also a France international now - will relish the opportunity to face his former club's fierce rivals.

One piece of good news for Tottenham is that Marseille's star summer signing Alexis Sanchez is suspended. The ex-Gunner has made a brilliant start to life in France following his move from Serie A Inter but will play no part here.

Market Madness

Looking at the odds, it's difficult to argue with Tottenham's status as favourites. They're 1.558/15 to win, with Marseille 7.06/1 and The Draw 4.77/2.

A more appealing selection is Over 2.5 Goals. Tottenham will be extremely positive in their first outing of the group stage in front of their own fans, and confident they can breach Marseille's three-man backline.

At the other end, however, in the form of Payet especially, the visitors have the quality to cause the Tottenham defence problems.

Ligue 1 is also going through a remarkably high-scoring phase - right now, it's the highest scoring of Europe's five major leagues.

That may also feed into the way Marseille approach the game and increase the chances of a high-scoring encounter.

Overs is odds-on but we're willing to take it at around 1.84/5.

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