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· Last Year's Game - 1-0 to Bolton
· Last Year's Spursometer - 49%
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 1 2005-6
· Spurs won at Fratton Park. Bolton drew at Villa Park
Full League record against Bolton:-
Premier Pl W D L For-Ag Pts
Home 7 4 1 2 11 - 8 13
Away 7 1 2 4 6 -11 5
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Total(Prem) 14 5 3 6 17 -19 18
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1) 29 17 5 7 57 - 31 39
Away (Div 1) 29 9 3 17 38 - 52 21
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Total(Div 1) 58 26 8 24 95 - 83 60
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2) 2 2 0 0 3 - 1 4
Away (Div 2) 2 1 0 1 1 - 1 2
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Total(Div 2) 4 3 0 1 4 - 2 6
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Total(Prem) 14 5 3 6 17 -19 18
Total(Div 1) 58 26 8 24 95 -83 60
Total(Div 2) 4 3 0 1 4 - 2 6
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Grand Total 76 34 11 31 116 -104 84
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Last Six Premiership results:-
Spurs
Spurs 2-1 Man City
Everton 0-1 Spurs
Spurs 1-2 Man Utd
Arsenal 1-1 Spurs
Spurs 1-0 Bolton
West Ham 2-1 Spurs
Bolton
Bolton 0-2 Chelsea
West Brom 0-0 Bolton
Bolton 4-1 Charlton
Spurs 1-0 Bolton
Bolton 1-1 M'brough
Bolton 1-0 B'mingham
Final Position 2005-6
P W D L F - A GD Pts
5 Spurs 38 18 11 9 53- 38 15 65
8 Bolton 38 15 11 12 49- 41 8 56
It's here! At long last, after a long hot summer (punctuated by the World Cup that now seems ages ago), the Premiership returns this week-end. The pre-season seems to have been going on for ages, and with Spurs playing many games outside the UK, it has been hard to spot the new boys - Berbatov, Zokora and Assou-Ekotto. Zokora returned to training a little later than others, due to his involvement in the World Cup with The Ivory Coast, but all three have impressed observers in Spurs' colours. Indeed Berbatov did everything but score in Tuesday night's friendly against Wales, but had the pundits salivating at his skills. I've seen mournful e-mails from fans of his last club - Bayer Leverkusen - where he scored over 20 goals in his last two seasons. We hope to see such form carry on, starting at The Reebock Stadium.
If you disregard the disastrous last day of the season, Bolton were our last Premiership opponents, when we beat them 1-0 in April at The Lane, to end a horrible 6-match run of consecutive league defeats against The Wanderers. Aaron Lennon scored the goal, and as he did not start for England on Wednesday, he should be fresh, raring to go, and available for Martin Jol, should the Spurs coach feel adventurous enough to play an attacking midfield. Teemu Tainio may well be fit enough to start, and with Jenas, Zokora and Davids likely to fill the other midfield places, Tainio and Lennon must fight it out for the last spot. Robbie Keane's injury gives Jermain Defoe a clear run to start alongside Berbatov. (Note though that Martin Jol hopes to have Keane fit enough for selection!)
During the close season, Sam Allardyce has off-loaded centre-backs N'Gotty and Jaidi, both of whom have gone to Birmingham. Jay-Jay Okocha was also released, and has gone to Qatar. Dietmar Hamann was the shortest-lived Bolton signing ever, but apparently a profit was made as the German decided Bolton was not for him, and went to Man City!
Allardyce has signed a colleague of Zokora - Abdoulaye Meite - who is a central defender. Quinton Fortune was also signed, but he is one of three doubts for this game (along with Kevin Davies and Joey O'Brien. Ricardo Gardner will be out for at least two months with a cruciate ligament injury. Pedersen and Faye are additional absentees.
Bolton have had a dismal pre-season, and with their injury predicament, perhaps it is in the runes for Spurs to at last win a Premiership game at The Reebock. Our last away league win was in 1996, at Burnden Park, when David Howells, Ruel Fox and Chris Armstrong gave us a 3-0 lead before late goals from Stubbs and Sellars made it a nervy finish. In last season's game, we suffered an injustice when Defoe's legitimate goal was ruled offside and Kevin Nolan's 32nd minute goal was the decider. Nolan scored 9 Premiership goals last term, and will be a big threat this Saturday.
To the best of my knowledge, the only previous occasion we have played against Bolton in the first League game of a season was in 1924 (August 30th), when we won 3-0 at White Hart Lane. We have played The "Trotters" on three other August dates. We lost in 1921, but in our 1950-51 Championship winning season, Spurs not only won at home and away, but scored 4 goals on both occasions! Both matches were played around the time of the August Bank Holiday.
So - it is time for a Spurs win, and I do fancy us to do it. I am hoping for a clean sheet, and will predict a 2-0 win with both the Spurs strikers scoring. The Spurs Odyssey report will be published on Sunday.
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