Tottenham vs. Marseille Betting Tips: Aggressive visitors are the focus on Wednesday

The opening match day of this year’s Champions League continues on Wednesday evening, with three British clubs in action but while Liverpool and Rangers travel to face their foes, Tottenham welcome Marseille to the capital.

The visitors managed to find themselves embroiled in one of the more bizarre stories of transfer deadline day, as an outrageous series of events saw them somehow retain the services of Bamba Dieng despite agreeing on his departure several times. Having initially agreed a £10m move to Leeds United, the Senegalese winger was waiting to catch a flight to finalise a move to the Yorkshire side when an offer came in from the French Riviera.

Dieng’s transfer to the Premier League had been hijacked by OGC Nice and soon enough he was on his way there for a medical, which he then failed. The almost unbelievable sequence of events, which couldn’t even be solved by Ligue 1’s ‘Joker’ transfer rule, led to Dieng remaining at Les Olympiens until at least January unless a side from a country with an open transfer market makes a move. To top it all of, Dieng hasn’t even been included in his side’s Champions League squad.

Igor Tudor hasn’t allowed the outrageous nature of that situation get in the way of his side’s start to the Ligue 1 campaign though, with Marseille only being kept off the league’s summit by PSG’s frankly ridiculous goal difference. Les Phocéens have started their domestic campaign superbly - picking up five wins and a draw through six matches, conceding just three times and keeping three consecutive clean sheets.

They boast the league’s best defence so far, which is incredible considering the fact they lost Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year William Saliba after he returned to parent-club Arsenal, defensive-midfielder Boubacar Kamara to Aston Villa on a free, and Duje Caleta-Car to Southampton on transfer deadline day.

Spurs had no issues finding the net under Antonio Conte last season and that’s a phenomenon that has continued into this campaign, with the Lilywhites bagging 12 times in their opening six games.

The man who has scored more of those than anyone else is unsurprisingly Harry Kane, who put the August myth to bed once and for all with four goals in his cursed month.

It hasn’t been quite as successful a start to the year for Son Heung-min though, who has failed to contribute to his side’s goal tally other than an assist in their season opener.

He finished last term in blistering form, surging from seemingly nowhere to snatch the Golden Boot from the grasp of Mohamed Salah, but has missed two big chances this time around without finding himself on the scoresheet.

His poor start to the new season saw him deposed by new signing Richarlison at the weekend, who has often energised his side from the bench and contributed two assists in limited minutes.

Whilst they aren’t necessarily a dirty side per se, Marseille are ultra aggressive under Igor Tudor and that shows in the amount of fouls they commit.

Les Olympiens have been guilty of making the second-most fouls of all sides in Ligue 1 and have averaged almost 16 per game in their six so far this year.

Their opponents haven’t necessarily been the trickiest of sides, and have barely drawn many fouls in their other matches - indicating that Marseille themselves are the cause of their own high foul count.

Without their fouls included their opponents have averaged: 11.0 (Reims), 11.6 (Auxerre and Nantes), 12.4 (Brest), and 12.8 (Nice), with only Clermont Foot (16.2) suffering more fouls on average than Marseille committed against them.

Tottenham haven’t drawn many this year, but they’re far superior to the level of opposition that Marseille have faced so far and have some serious attacking threats in their squad, so should make life difficult for the visitors.

This price has blown my mind. No player in Marseille’s squad has committed more fouls or picked up more cards than the Frenchman.

Operating on the right of Igor Tudor’s double pivot, Rongier has earned three bookings in six starts so far this term whilst committing a team-high 12 fouls - only four players in Ligue 1 have made more.

He’s likely to really relish the prospect of facing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur in the centre of the park, and has an interesting history in elite European competition.

Rongier started four of Marseille’s Europa League group games last season, picking up a booking in each game and a second-yellow sending off against Lokomotiv Moscow.

The season before last he also earned eight yellows in just 21 Ligue 1 starts and is currently committing fouls at an even higher rate than he did in that campaign.