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· Last Season's Corresponding Game - Lost 1-0
· This Season's away game - Won 2-1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 32 2009-10
· See the current injury list for all Premiership Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
Full League Record v Stoke City
Premier Pl W D L F - A Pts
Home 2 1 0 1 3 - 2 3
Away 3 2 0 1 5 - 4 6
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Total (Prem) 5 3 0 2 8 - 6 9
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Football Lge
Home (Div One) 26 20 5 1 56 -19 49
Away (Div One) 26 7 8 11 26 -34 24
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Total(Div 1) 52 27 13 12 82 -53 73
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Football Lge
Home(Div Two) 7 6 1 0 18 - 7 13
Away(div Two) 7 2 1 4 9 -11 5
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Total(Div 2) 14 8 2 4 27 -18 18
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Total (Prem) 5 3 0 2 8 - 6 9
Total (Div1) 52 27 13 12 82 -53 73
Total (Div2) 14 8 2 4 27 -18 18
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Grand Total 71 38 15 18 117 -77 100
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Last Six Premiership results:-
Spurs
Spurs 2-1 Bolton
S'derland 1-2 Spurs
Blackpool 3-1 Spurs
Wolves 3-3 Spurs
Spurs 0-0 West Ham
Wigan 0-0 Spurs
Stoke
B'mingham 1-0 Stoke
Arsenal 1-0 Stoke
Stoke 1-1 West Brom
West Ham 3-0 Stoke
Stoke 4-0 Newcastle
Stoke 1-1 Chelsea
Pos P W D L F-A GD Pts
5 Spurs 30 13 11 6 41-34 7 50
11 Stoke 31 11 5 15 37-39 -2 38
Goals have to be on the menu tomorrow........
............. and the balance has to be in Spurs' favour. The team news suggests that all three strikers are fit, and in my view, two of them must play. Lennon (still a doubt through his illness)and Bale might also be available, and I would like to see them start as well, giving us the width we hoped for in Madrid, and which ought to deliver enough chances for the likes of Crouch and Pavlyuchenko to convert. I name those two, because Crouch will not be available next Wednesday night for the almost meaningless home leg of our Champions League quarter-final tie, so let's see him try to regain some faith from the fans he so badly let down in the Bernabeu.
It may sound like sacrilege to some, but I'd leave Van der Vaart out of the starting line-up tomorrow, if Lennon can play. His form has been lacking recently, and I really do think that this is a game for an out and out attacking gung-ho 4-4-2. Maybe this is a game for Tom Huddlestone to make his return. Big Tom spent some time in the Bernabeu after Tuesday night's game warming up with one of the coaches. His return must be imminent.
Whether Stoke offer the sort of opposition in which "Thud" can play his natural game, remains to be seen. I'd have Modric partner him. It looks as if Gallas, Dawson and Ekotto will also be fit, as the only advised injury absentees are Pienaar as well as Hutton, King, Palacios and Woodgate. Corluka and Kranjcar are described as doubts, but if necessay, Jenas could fill the right back slot. I'd rather see Assou-Ekotto stick to his best side on the left.
In my view, Spurs' situation is not one where anyone should deliberately be rested for next Wednesday, as the absolute priority has to be to qualify for next season's Champions League. It's a task that already looks very difficult, but we also have Liverpool chasing us for fifth place. It's a cliche we've been using all too often recently, but this is a "must win" game
We all know that Stoke are not going to be easy though. They are in decent form at present too. They had a very honourable draw with Chelsea last week, beat Newcastle 4-0 the week before, and they have an FA Cup semi-final to look forward to next Saturday. Perhaps, just perhaps, Tony Pulis will have half an eye on that, because victory over Bolton is going to give them a place in Europe, even as a losing FA Cup Finalist against Man Utd or Man City.
On the other hand, Pulis knows that his team need at least one more win to ensure their Premier League status, now in their third year. They've got other winnable games, but on Spurs current form (no goals in their last four games, and no Premier League win in 4 games either. Who wouldn't fancy their chances against a sorely hurt Spurs side?
Rory Delap will not have a towel carrying ball boy at his beck and call for every throw here, but on the other hand, the weather is fine, warm and dry anyway, so he probably won't need that piece of hardwware to assist his long throw game. Stoke will miss defender Danny Higginbotham, who went off late against Chelsea and has suffered a cruciate knee injury that threatens to keep him out for 6 months. John Carew, on loan from Aston Villa, has been out with a back problem for a month, and has the potential to be a powerful threat to the Spurs defence. So does Ricardo Fuller, although he has only scored once in his last 20 games for Stoke, and four times all season. Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant will happily fly down the wings and try to taunt the Spurs defence.
Stoke could be our fourth league "double" victims of the season, as Gareth Bale gave us a 2-1 win at The Britannia. One of his goals was a fine volley that will live long in the memory. On the other hand, Stoke were one of the teams that surprised us at White Hart Lane last season.
It's another tough domestic game then, and Spurs have to serve up some goals. I'll take them to do just that and win 3-1!
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