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Spurs Odyssey Preview - West Brom v Spurs, 12.04.14

· Last Season's Corresponding Game - West Brom 0 Spurs 1
· This season's home game - 1-1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 34 2012-13

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

Full Record of Spurs -v- West Bromwich Albion


Prem         Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home          8   4   4   0   12 - 7  16
Away          7   3   2   2    9 - 8  11
=========================================
Total(Prem)  15   7   6   2   21 -15  27
=========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1)  45  22  11  12   79 -46  55
Away(Div 1)  45  12   7  26   54 -94  31
=========================================
Total(Div 1) 90  34  18  38  133 -140 86
=========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)   8   3   3   2   12 -10   9
Away(Div 2)   8   1   1   6   14 -20   3
=========================================
Total(Div 2) 16   4   4   8   26 -30  12
=========================================
Total(Prem)  15   7   6   2   21 -15  27
Total(Div 1) 90  34  18  38  133 -140 86
Total(Div 2) 16   4   4   8   26 -30  12
=========================================
Grand Total 121  45  28  48  180 -185 124
=========================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

West Brom-  DLWLDW

West Brom  1-1   Fulham
West Brom  0-3   Man Utd
Swansea    1-2   West Brom
Hull       2-0   West Brom
West Brom  3-3   Cardiff
Norwich    0-1

Spurs    -  WLLWLW

Spurs      1-0   Cardiff
Chelsea    4-0   Spurs
Spurs      0-1   Arsenal
Spurs      3-2   Southampton
Liverpool  4-0   Spurs
Spurs      5-1   Sunderland

Pos            P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 6. Spurs     33 18  5 10  45-45   0   59
16. West Brom 32  6 14 12  37-48 -11   32

A special Saturday

As a mark of respect to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, all matches scheduled to kick off at 3pm tomorrow, will be delayed until 3.07 pm, following a one minute silence which will occur at the exact time the tragic event of that day unfolded.

Other matches over the week-end will also kick-off seven minutes later than scheduled. This will include the Liverpool v Man City game on Sunday lunch-time, and of course, the FA Cup semi-final games tomorrow and on Sunday.

For Spurs, playing the 50th game in what will be a 54 game season, this would otherwise have been only their fourth Saturday three o'clock kick-off. Now, our next away game at Stoke will be the fourth and last such occasion this season.

For West Brom, it would be a very special Saturday if they were able to beat Spurs. The "Baggies" are still very much in the mix regarding the battle to avoid relegation, and haven't won a home game since New Year's Day, when they beat Newcastle 1-0 with a Saido Berahino penalty. Berahino is a 20 year old attacker who hails from Burundi, but has English nationality. He has come through the ranks at The Hawthorns, and has scored four league goals this season, in restricted appearances.

Berahino has very rarely played 90 minutes for West Brom. One of the goals he scored was in West Brom's 2-1 win at Old Trafford in September. Yes, even West Brom beat United, as did Newcastle, which rather takes the gloss off the fact that we achieved a second successive away win against United!

Pepe Mel was appointed West Brom manager in January after Steve Clark was sacked, but he has hardly changed their fortunes. The big reason for West Brom's lowly position is a proliferation of drawn matches (14), rather than their defeats (12). In fact, you have to go as high as 8th in the current league table to find a team which has lost less Premier League games than West Brom this season.

One of those draws was the exciting 3-3 home match against Cardiff two weeks ago, when they thought they'd grabbed an added time winner, only for Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer's strugglers to grab a last chance equaliser. the two managers embraced at the end of a game, which no-one deserved to lose, in truth.

Another of those draws, of course, came at White Hart Lane on Boxing Day. That was Tim Sherwood's first home league game, and followed an exciting 3-2 win at Southampton, but Jonas Olsson quickly equalised Christian Eriksen's brilliant free kick goal in the first half.

Last season's away game at The Hawthorns was a memorable one, not always for the right reasons. The "Baggies" were holding their own, but went down to 10 men early in the second half, when left back Goran Popov literally spat at Kyle Walker. Gareth Bale later scored the only goal of the game. It was a powerful, rising shot, scored with little back-lift as I recall.

Popov is actually a loan player from Dynamo Kiev, but he has hardly played for West Brom this season. When we played them last year the Odemwingie transfer farce had been in the news, and this year, West Brom have had the unfortunate publicity regarding Nicolas Anelka's quenelle gesture. Anelka was sacked by West Brom, and has now signed for a Brazilian Club - Atletico Mineiro.

Another striker perhaps missed by West Brom is Shane Long, who was allowed to go to Hull in January, where he has forged a useful and rewarding partnership with Jelavic. Both are likely to play in Hill's FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on Sunday.

I've seen a cheeky article this week by Matthew Norman, suggesting that Spurs are among the Premier League teams "fighting" for seventh place and non-qualification in the Europa League. I don't believe that for one minute, and Tim Sherwood will be trying as hard as he can for a place in Europe. Only two years ago, Atletico Madrid won an all-Spanish Europa League final in front of an ecstatic Spanish crowd. look where they are now! In the Champions League semi-finals, and at the top of La Liga.

Spurs still have a mathematical chance of Champions League football, but realistically, the Europa League is their best chance of continental football. Next year's Europa League winners will win a Champions League place too.

The official team news indicates that Sandro is doubtful, Soldado is training but not ready to play, and Dembele, Vertonghen, Dawson and Walker remain out, with our longer term absentees Capoue and Lamela. Sherwood's options seem to be limited to a side resembling that which beat Sunderland 5-1 on Monday.

I think it is going to be a tight game, and we might have to be satisified with a draw. I'll go for a 2-1 win for Spurs though!

Tomorrow's referee will be Neil Swarbrick, who we last saw in our 4-0 at Newcastle in February.

· 15 years ago this week, we lost an FA Cup semi-final to Newcastle in extra time.

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