Tottenham drop Richarlison team news hint for Aston Villa clash as Dominic Solanke decision made

Tottenham return to Premier League action this afternoon as they host top-four rivals Aston Villa. Last weekend, Spurs were beaten by Crystal Palace - but Ange Postecoglou's side responded perfectly to that top-flight setback by knocking Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Given the quick turnaround, the strong side named against City and ongoing injury issues, Postecoglou is facing a number of key team selection decisions. Firstly, a replacement for Micky van de Ven is required after he suffered a new hamstring injury which will keep him out of action for the next few weeks.

Radu Dragusin seems the most likely player to come in, but there are more decisions needing to be made further up the pitch. Club captain Son Heung-min has missed the last two games despite having only just returned from a hamstring injury himself.

The South Korea international was spotted in training on Saturday, though, which suggests he should be involved at the very least. Given the setback suffered, Postecoglou might opt to introduce him from their substitutes bench but it could instead be Dominic Solanke who's set for that role.

For the final 20 minutes against Pep Guardiola's side, Solanke appeared to be carrying a knock and will undoubtedly feel very fatigued given the work he's put in leading the press. As such, one of the duo being left out of the starting XI is plausible which could mean an opportunity for Richarlison - as underlined by a social media update.

On Instagram, Tottenham's account posted their pre-match graphic with Richarlison as one of the players included alongside James Maddison, Pape Matar Sarr, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro.

READ MORE: Tottenham games Micky van de Ven will miss after Ange Postecoglou shares injury update

READ MORE: Tottenham predicted XO vs Aston Villa - Postecoglou makes four changes amid Son decision

Richarlison is capable of playing through the middle, or on the left, and he therefore can feature ahead of either Solanke or Son if Postecoglou deems it to be necessary. Ideally, the Tottenham manager will have his first-choice attackers available and in the starting XI, but the option to deploy Richarlison is there.

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