Tottenham Hotspur vs. Crystal Palace team news: Dembele and Lloris out, Son could feature

Tottenham Hotspur will open their final season at White Hart Lane this Saturday by hosting Alan Pardew and Crystal Palace, and there are no new injuries to report other than the usual suspects.

Hugo Lloris will miss the match (as well as next week’s home tie against Liverpool) with a hamstring injury sustained in last week’s season opening draw against Everton. Michel Vorm is set to start the match in his place. Midfielder Mousa Dembele will also miss the match as he continues his six-match suspension for raking the eyes of Diego Costa last spring.

Sonny, meanwhile, has returned to London to regain training with the first team after his South Korean U23 side crashed out of the Olympic quarterfinals in a loss against Honduras. While he’s technically available for selection, he has missed most of the preseason training with Spurs and I’d be very surprised if he sees anything more than the bench in these first few days back.

Curiously – or perhaps encouragingly – there was no mention of Kevin Wimmer, who missed the Everton tie with an undisclosed muscle injury. Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld will assuredly start in defense against the Eagles, but having a healthy Big Kev back would be good for our confidence in Spurs’ defense.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace are dinged up here early in the new Premier League campaign. Palace will be without midfielders Bakary Sako, James McArthur, and Johnny Williams, and the club just sold their former captain Mile Jedinak to Aston Villa in the Championship. James Tomkins is close to a return, but is unlikely to feature, and striker Frazier Campbell is also injured, meaning Conor Wickham will likely start up top again for Palace.

Former Tottenham player Andros Townsend is expected to start for Palace against his old club on Saturday in a match that will be his first return to White Hart Lane since Spurs sold him to Newcastle in January of 2016.