· Brian Judson's Preview
· Last Year's Game - Ziege's surprise!
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 13 2001-2
· Some more recent fixtures

Last Six Premiership results:-

Sunderland

N'castle 2  0   Sunderland
S'dland  1  0   A. Villa
Arsenal  3  1   Sunderland
S'dland  0  1   West Ham
Bolton   1  1   Sunderland
Charlton 1  1   Sunderland

Spurs

Man Utd   1  0   Spurs
Spurs     0  3   Middlesbrough
Blackburn 1  2   Spurs
Spurs     3  1   Bolton
Liverpool 2  1   Spurs
Spurs     0  0   Chelsea

Pos           P   W  D  L  F-A GD  Pts

 5 Spurs     12  6  2  4 17-16  1  20 
18 S'derland 12  2  4  6  6-16 -10 10

Armchair fans will be able to tune in for the next episode of the Spurs Autumn TV extravaganza (they are featured in 6 of their next 9 games), which takes place at The Stadium of Light this Sunday. With 8 Premiership matches being played this Saturday, Spurs will need a win to reclaim their fifth place, whilst Sunderland, of course, are desperate for their first league win under the direction of Howard Wilkinson.

Sunderland will take encouragement from their midweek win over Arsenal Reserves in the Worthington Cup, but they are likely to face a full strength Spurs side, with Richards, Redknapp, Freund and Sheringham returning to action after their midweek rest. Robbie Keane only played the second half at Burnley, and will be anxious to prove his goalscoring powers.

Now that Spurs have taken an early exit from the Worthington Cup, league position becomes the prioprity (if it was not the case before Wednesday!), as they seek to claim a European place. Indeed, Glenn Hoddle and his side must harbour thoughts of claiming a Champions League slot, even though they would never say so in public. All Spurs fans know that the next few weeks will show whether we can realistically hope for such heights, when we travel to Highbury next Saturday, and host Terry Venable's ailing Leeds side the following week.

As the old cliche has it, every game in the Premiership is a toughie, and this one will not be pretty, if you ask me. Sunderland will be getting men behind the ball, and seeking to crowd out Simon Davies and Robbie Keane, who must be the most likely scorers for Spurs. Marcus Stewart has not yet got omn the mark in the league for the Black Cats, who have scored only 6 Premiership goals. Their other big signing - Flo - has two league goals to his name. One time Spurs target, Kevin Phillips, has yet to find the target, but I believe he has missed games through injury.

Over the last 6 games, Spurs only have two more points than Sunderland, but I'll go for a 2-0 away win.

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