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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Spurs v Southampton, 05.12.18

· Last season's game - Spurs 5 Southampton 2, 26.12.17
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premier League on Matchday 15 2017-18

· See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats


Full Record of Spurs -v- Southampton

Prem         Pl    W   D   L   For- Ag  Pts
Home         19   14   2   3   46 - 20  44
Away         19    6   5   8   22 - 22  23
==========================================
Total(Prem)  38   20   7  11   68 - 42  67
==========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1)  22   13   4   5   52 - 28  38
Away(Div 1)  22    6   8   8   25 - 35  24
==========================================
Total(Div 1) 44   19  12  13   77 - 63  62
==========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)  14    9   3   2   41 - 12  21
Away(Div 2)  14    2   5   7   12 - 17   9
==========================================
Total(Div 2) 28   11   8   9   53 - 29  30
==========================================
Total(Prem)  38   20   7  11   68 - 42  67
Total(Div 1) 44   19  12  13   77 - 63  62
Total(Div 2) 28   11   8   9   53 - 29  30
==========================================
Grand Total 110   50  27  33  198 -134 159
==========================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Spurs      -    WLWWWL
           
West Ham   0-1    Spurs
Spurs      0-1    Man City
Wolves     2-3    Spurs
C. Palace  0-1    Spurs
Spurs      3-1    Chelsea
Arsenal    4-2    Spurs

S'hampton   -   DDLDLD

B'mouth    0-0    S'hampton
S'hampton  0-0    Newcastle
Man City   6-1    S'hampton
S'hampton  1-1    Watford
Leicester  0-0    S'hampton
S'hampton  2-2    Man Utd

Pos            P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 5. Spurs     14 10  0  4  25-15  10   30
18. S'hampton 14  1  6  7  12-26 -14    9

Who's next? Not Mark Hughes!

The gag doing the rounds on social media this week has been about Southampton's manager Mark Hughes getting the sack for only drawing against Manchester United! The "Saints" had been two up against Mourinho's men early in Saturday's game, but failed to hold onto the lead. Like Spurs, Southampton have lost two of their last six games, but the difference is that Spurs have won the other four whereas Hughes' team drew their other four games.

Hughes had won just three of the 22 Premier League games during his 8 month tenure for Southampton, one of which was this season. He kept them up last season by just a little more than the skin of their teeth (three points), but those in charge at St. Mary's have clearly seen the error of their ways in giving the man with such a poor win ratio (not just in this job) a contract last summer. Hughes will no doubt survive on his pay-off for a while, and will no doubt find a job somewhere else in due course. Perhaps that won't be in the Premier League.

First team assistant coach Kelvin Davis will look after the team before a replacement is appointed, but the "Saints" are rumoured to be after former Leipzig manager Ralph Hasenhuttl. After the events of the weekend, both teams need a shake-up, but I am sure Spurs will find Southampton a tougher nut to crack than when they beat them 5-2 last year. Harry Kane scored his eleventh and last (at this time) club hat-trick in that game. Only Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Smith have scored more hat-tricks than Kane for the club, whilst George Hunt also scored 11 hat-tricks.

With regard to hat-tricks one famous Spurs record was achieved by Frank Osborne who scored a hat-trick in three successive games in October/November 1925. Even the great Jimmy Greaves didn't do that! Osborne would go on to play for Southampton between 1931 and 1933.

Toby Alderweireld, who is one of the most recent examples of those who have played for both clubs, will surely play in this match, having been rested for Sunday's game against Arsenal. I still believe that Toby, and not Juan Foyth should have played in that game, but in Poch we must trust. Now the manager must play them together tomorrow, due to Jan Vertonghen's one-match suspension. Foyth won't be eligible for next Tuesday's Barcelona game, and the manager does need to use his resources wisely in the very busy period we have until the New Year. We have 8 more games to play this month, and the manager has bemoaned the fact that the players are not machines, saying "To play every three days, there is not a player who can play all the games. We have to mix the players and rotate, so all the players feel important."

Another of the recent departures from Southampton to Spurs was Victor Wanyama, who is another one of those unavailable tomorrow, along with Lamela, Sanchez, and of course Dembele. There is good news insofar as Kieran Trippier has returned to full training and is available for selection, so I rather suspect we will see Trippier and Rose in the full back positions. Whether Pochettino's rotation policy will extend to the goalkeeper or not remains to be seen, but it is interesting to note that (another former Southampton player) Paulo Gazzaniga seems to have been elevated to number two keeper, with more sub appearances of late than Michel Vorm.

Regarding the many players who have played for both clubs, the ones that spring to mind are Martin Chivers, who came to Spurs in 1968, and of course more recently a certain Gareth Bale. When Chivers came to Spurs Frank Saul, who scored one of our 1967 FA Cup Final winning goals against Chelsea, went the other way. Frank was recently presented with a League Championship medal after the club successfully made representations for those who appeared 6 or more times for the Double winning side to be awarded a Championship medal. Another such recipient was Tony Marchi.

In my recent Chelsea match preview Spurs Odyssey Quiz League Double winner David Guthrie (@Shindig53 on Twitter) kindly advised me that Jimmy Greaves scored for and against Spurs in 1961, the year he transferred to Spurs via Italy. Similarly, David has told me that Martin Chivers performed the same feat, but not in the same year. On remembrance day 1967 Chivers scored for "The Saints" in a 2-1 home defeat by Spurs. Then in April, 1968 he scored one of our 6 goals in a 6-1 victory over a side which included Saul.

One of Southampton's summer signings was Scottish midfielder Stuart Armstrong from Celtic for £7 million. Armstrong has made 4 league sytarts and 6 substitute appearances so far and scored his first goals for the club against Fulham, then also scored the first goal against United on Saturday. On that basis, Armstrong could be the main danger tomorrow. Danny Ings is the only player who has out-scored Armstrong and has been out with a hamstring injury. He faces a late fitness test tomorrow.

I am expecting a significant performance by our team, in front of their own fans. There needs to be a response to Sunday's defeat at "the other place". I have predicted a 3-0 home win.

Match referee Anthony Taylor has been in the middle for 13 of the 14 Premier League games played so far this season. The only Spurs game he looked after was our 3-1 home win over Fulham. Elsewhere he has been in charge of such high profile games as Wales v Spain and Borussia Dortmund v Atletico Madrid.

· "It was Twenty Years ago today!" - On 5th December 20 years ago we beat Liverpool 2-1. Jamie Carragher scored an own goal!

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