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· Spurs Odyssey Statpack
· Last Year's Game - Spurs won 2-1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 27 2001-2

Last Six Premiership results:-

Spurs

Newcastle   2  1   Spurs
S'hampton   1  0   Spurs
Spurs       4  3   Everton
A. Villa    0  1   Spurs
Spurs       0  1   Newcastle
Chelsea     1  1   Spurs

Sunderland

S'hampton   2  1   S'derland
Man Utd     2  1   S'dland
S'derland   0  0   Blackburn
Everton     2  1   S'derland
S'derland   0  1   S'hampton
S'derland   1  3   Charlton

Pos           P   W  D  L  F-A GD  Pts
 9 Spurs     26 11  6  9 36-36  0  39 
20 S'derland 26  4  7 15 17-38 -21 19

One of Spurs worst performances of the season (and there have been several) was on 10th November, when we lost 2-0 at The Stadium of Light, which that day saw the first win under Howard Wilkinson's management. The Black Cats have since won only one other league game, and that was at home to Liverpool. They have just one point from their last six Premiership outings. No wonder that Wilkinson seemed to have mixed feelings about their success in the FA Cup the other night against Blackburn, when he knows that survival is the priority.

Phillips and Flo are the top scorers in the league with just 4 apiece out of a grand total of 17! It takes a lot of dedication to be a Sunderland fan these days, and gallows humour was evident last week, when the team lost 3-1 at home to Charlton, thanks to two, arguably three own goals.

Do Sunderland have any hope then? Well, of course Spurs have all too often lost to basement teams. Last season we lost twice to Ipswich, and also managed to lose to Derby and Leicester who went down. It's not that long ago that we managed a shameful home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, (Have a read if you don't believe me!) so nothing should surprise you dear reader! One surprising statistic ( see the stats here) is that Sunderland have more clean sheets to their name than we have this season.

I think that Sunderland are the one team for whom there is absolutely no hope of survival, and I do not think they will shock us tomorrow. At White Hart lane we are their "Chelsea", as they have never won in the Premiership, and last beat us at The Lane in 1978.

Spurs will still have injury problems, and for me the key to the score is the fitness of Robbie Keane. With him, I think we could rattle up a 4-0, without him, I would settle for 2-0.

This is Spurs first home game to be played on a Saturday since September. I keep mentioning the result of that game, which was one of our other pathetic shows, when Middlesbrough beat us. (Burnley and Southampton are the other games that immediately come to mind). We then have an enforced break of over two weeks due to our absence from the Cup, and Sky's decision to watch us beat Fulham on 24th February. Wins in both these games are vital to us in our quest for UEFA next season.

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