Premier League Preview: Tottenham v Hull City

Tom Huddlestone will be aiming to make a successful return to White Hart Lane when Hull City face Tottenham on Sunday.

Huddlestone ended an eight-year stay with Tottenham to join Hull on a permanent deal in August and has impressed during the latter’s strong start to the season.

Fellow midfielder Jake Livermore also made the move from London to the KC Stadium on a season-long loan but is not eligible to face his parent club.

While Livermore will miss out, Tottenham’s Gylfi Sigurdsson is wary of the threat provided by former colleague Huddlestone.

Sigurdsson told his club’s official website: “Tom is a fantastic player as we all know. I saw at first-hand last season just how good he can be.

“His passing and vision is unbelievable and if we allow him too much time, he will find his targets and cause us damage.

“He and Jake have done really well for Hull and I’m sure their performances are one of the reasons why they have made a decent start to the campaign.”

Although Hull sit ninth in the Premier League table with an encouraging tally of 11 points from nine games, they have been beaten in three out of four away outings, the exception a 3-2 win at Newcastle.

Tottenham have only mustered four goals in as many home matches, but sit three points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal in fifth.

Andre Villas-Boas made seven changes for his side’s UEFA Europa League meeting with Sheriff on Thursday – which Tottenham won 2-0 through goals from Jan Vertonghen and Jermain Defoe – and can be expected to shuffle his pack again.

Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Andros Townsend are among those likely to return to the home starting line-up, but Hull boss Bruce does not have the luxury of being able to rotate his squad.

Indeed, with several players – including Livermore, Allan McGregor (thigh), Sone Aluko (calf) and Danny Graham (knee) – unavailable, Bruce has claimed Hull could struggle to name a full allocation of substitutes.

The teams have only met in the top-flight on four occasions and Tottenham failed to score in each of the previous meetings at White Hart Lane, in 2008 and 2010.