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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Spurs v Liverpool, 31.08.14

· Last Season's Corresponding Game - Spurs 0 Liverpool 5
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 3 2013-14

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


Premier     Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home        22  11   5   6   32 -30  38
Away        22   2   6  14   19 -45  12
========================================
Total(Prem) 44  13  11  20   51 -75  50
========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1) 49  24  10  15   71 -58  62
Away(Div 1) 49   4  14  31   38 -95  24
========================================
Total(Div 1)98  28  24  46  109 -153 86
========================================
Total(Prem) 44  13  11  20   51 -75  50
Total(Div 1)98  28  24  46  109 -153 86
========================================
Grand Total 142 41  35  66  160 -226 136
========================================


Last Six Premier League results:-

Last Six Premier League results:-

Spurs    -  WWLWWW

Spurs      3-1   Fulham
Stoke      0-1   Spurs
West Ham   2-0   Spurs
Spurs      3-0   A. Villa
West Ham   0-1   Spurs
Spurs      4-0   QPR

Liverpool    -  WLDWWL

Norwich    2-3   Liverpool
Liverpool  0-2   Chelsea
C. Palace  3-3   Liverpool
Liverpool  2-1   Newcastle
Liverpool  2-1   S'hampton
Man City   3-1   Liverpool

Pos           P  W  D  L   F-A  GD  Pts
1. Spurs      2  2  0  0   5-0   5   6
9. Liverpool  2  1  0  1   3-4  -1   3

Never mind all the Balotelli hype - Spurs can win this!

Spurs go into this week-end on top of the two game Premier League table, but that situation won't survive the Saturday fixtures in which the other three teams on six points are likely to overtake us. We'll just have to reclaim top spot tomorrow!

Despite all the hype about Brendan Rodgers and his Liverpool squad, including the £16 million signing of another "bad boy" Mario Balotelli, I really think Spurs have every chance of managing a win tomorrow.

You don't have to cast your mind back to pre-Suarez days to find a time when Spurs were doing well against Liverpool. Just look at the following results, all of which featured Suarez playing for "The Reds":-


Liverpool 0 Spurs 2     15th May 2011
Spurs     4 Liverpool 0 18th September, 2011
Liverpool 0 Spurs 0     6th February, 2012
Spurs     2 Liverpool 1 28th November, 2012

Yes, with Suarez in devastating form, Liverpool have won their last three games against us. Last year's home game was a watershed for Spurs, leading to the departure of Andre Villas-Boas, although I understand that departure was not purely for football reasons. We only did slightly better in the away game under Tim Sherwood, and from a Spurs point of view, we should simply look to the future under Mauricio Pochettino.

Pochettino has had a marvellous start to his Spurs career. His Spurs side was unbeaten in pre-season, and has now won their first four games, albeit against moderate opposition. Now comes his first big test against a side sorely hurt at the end of last season, after Steve Gerrard's slip-up at home against Chelsea, and a devastating 3-3 draw away to Crystal Palace. That could be as close as Liverpool come to a title missing from their honours list for over 20 years now. Like us, they've been ever-present in the Premier League, but never won it.

Rodgers' shopping list since the departure of Suarez has been much publicised, and likened by some to Spurs splashing the cash last year when Bale left. Rodgers raided Southampton for Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana (who is fit for selection tomorrow) and Dejan Lovren.

Then there was Javi Manquillo from Atletico Madrid, and Alberto Moreno from Sevilla. Moreno suffered injury in Liverpool's 3-1 defeat at The Etihad last Monday night, and faces a late test to see if he can play. Similarly, Glenn Johnson and Martin Skrtel also gave Rodgers injury worries, but may both feature.

Rodgers' shopping wasn't complete, as he got midfielders Markovic and Emre Can in from Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen respectively. Belgium's World Cup rising star Origi has been signed and loaned back to Lille, and now Balotelli has arrived back in England after two years with AC Milan, where he scored 26 goals in 37 league games, with more in Champions League and International football. Balotelli seems to have been around forver, but he is still only 24!

There is a team to be bedded in at Liverpool then, and despite the fact they started well against Man City, those injuries and tiredness did for them in the end.

Spurs on the other hand, have been well drilled under Pochettino, who while he might have something up his sleeve for tomorrow, is likely to revert to the team which started against QPR in a greaat performance last week. They will be up against greater technical skill and application tomorrow though.

Spurs' latest signing Federico Fazio is in the squad, but will perhaps start from the bench tomorrow.

Spurs need to maintain their form and style from last week's game, perhaps upping the tempo and concentration to a higher level. There are some lovely training ground touches being displayed, but not all of them have been succeeding, and against a team like Liverpool, Spurs could be made to pay, whereas against other teams, they have been recovering well from errors with Pochettino's high tempo pressing style.

Never mind the fact that Pochettino's Saints lost 3-0 at home to Liverpool in March. Liverpool were on the crest of a wave at that time. Think more about the fact that Pochettino master-minded a 1-0 away win at Anfield, and also think more of the additional talent he has on his hands here at Spurs.

So, never mind the hype. I'm predicting a 2-1 win for Spurs. It will be a good game though! See you there!

Tomorrow's match referee is Phil Dowd, who had a good record for us until we lost 4-0 at Anfield in March! He did also referee our last win against Liverpool two years ago.

P.S - I was asked yesterday when was the last time Spurs won their first four matches of the season. The answer was last year, when we beat Palace and Swansea 1-0, and Dinamo Tbilisi 8-0 on aggregate. As you know, this season, we are re-living our 2004-05 season, which also started with an unbeaten run:-

· 10 years ago this week, Spurs continued another unbeaten start with a 1-0 win over Birmingham. Jermain Defoe was the scorer.

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