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· Last season's Corresponding Game - Spurs 1 Stoke 2
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 2 2014-15
· 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 7 3 2 2 11 - 7 11
Away 7 4 0 3 9 -10 12
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Total (Prem) 14 7 2 5 20 -17 23
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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) 14 7 2 5 20 -17 23
Total (Div1) 52 27 13 12 82 -53 73
Total (Div2) 14 8 2 4 27 -18 18
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Grand Total 80 42 17 21 129 -88 114
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Last Six Premier League results:-
Spurs - DLLWWL
S'hampton 2-2 Spurs
Spurs 0-1 Man City
Stoke 3-0 Spurs
Spurs 2-0 Hull
Everton 0-1 Spurs
Man Utd 1-0 Spurs
Stoke - DLWDWL
Stoke 1-1 S'derland
Swansea 2-0 Stoke
Stoke 3-0 Spurs
Burnley 0-0 Stoke
Stoke 6-1 Liverpool
Stoke 0-1 Liverpool
Pos P W D L F-A GD Pts
15. Stoke 1 0 0 1 0-1 -1 0
16. Spurs 1 0 0 1 0-1 -1 0
The sort of game we must win this season
Spurs welcome Mark Hughes' Stoke City to White Hart Lane for the first home fixture of the season, and it is just the sort of game that we really must win if we are going to improve ourselves. Last season we lost at home and away to Stoke, which was the first time the "Potters" achieved a Premier League double against us.
Whilst it is arrogant to expect a win against any team, Spurs have had too many banana skin defeats at home in recent years. Last year's 2-1 home defeat against Stoke had me in despair and I was even suggesting that Mauricio Pochettino's future lay elsewhere. This was very much because the Stoke defeat was our fourth home loss in only 6 games. Newcastle and West Brom had been previous victors in games we hoped to win.
We weren't the only team surprised by Stoke last season. On the last day they dished out a 6-1 pasting to Liverpool, which enabled us to usurp the scousers in fifth place. In the end, with Arsenal winning the FA Cup, both Spurs and Liverpool gained passage to the group stage of the Europa League. At least in our case, it was a right, and not thanks to the team at the wrong end of Seven Sisters Road.
The Premier League fixtures computer gave Liverpool a quick return trip to The Britannia Stadium last week, and Sky no doubt anticipated another game with goals galore, only to be rewarded with surely the most dour of the first week-end's games. Stoke lost 1-0, which means they will be only more keen to get a result tomorrow.
Mark Hughes said after the game, "Liverpool have invested a lot of money this summer but I did not see £80m worth of difference between the teams. We are at a good level without going into the transfer market too much."
Even at that time, Hughes had signed 11 new players for his squad (one a loan), and this week the club have confirmed the signing of Swiss International winger Xherdan Shaqiri from Inter. Shaqiri was born in Kosovo. He first came to the notice of English fans when he featured for Switzerland against England in the qualifiers for Euro 2012. Shaqiri is still only 23, and spent three seasons with Bayern Munich. He was at Inter last season, but only started 8 league games. Perhaps he has had injury problems. In any case, I suspect he will start this game from the bench at best.
Hughes started just three of his new players last week. They were Glenn Johnson at right back, who had one of their best scoring chances against his old team; loanee Marco van Winkel (from Chelsea) in midfield, and another Dutchman, Ibrahim Afellay. Afellay was signed from Barcelona, but spent last season on loan with Olympiakos. Defender Philipp Wollscheid (signed from Bayer Leverkusen) replaced the injured Pieters at half-time.
I noticed that Arnautovic, who caused us so many problems last time we met, was absent last week, but he could be available tomorrow, along with Pieters and Marc Wilson. Wilson also missed last week's game. Club captain Ryan Shawcross has a back injury and will be missed for a while yet.
There can be no doubt that Stoke have a much stronger, and in theory more attractive, squad than in the past, but they are still capable of some tough and uncompromising football, as seen last Sunday. Spurs will need to be at their best.
Mauricio Pochettino reports a fully fit squad which means that Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose, Ryan Mason, Alex Pritchard and Andros Townsend are all available for selection. I suspect that Lloris, Rose and Mason will start in place of Vorm, Davies and Dier. 21 year old Clinton N'Jie is reported to be coming from Lyon, and Soldado has returned to Spain with Villarreal. We await confirmation of N'Jie's arrival. Soldado has ensured he will remain in the hearts of Spurs fans with a fond and sincere farewell message on Twitter.
It is going to be a tough game, I feel. Spurs lacked goal power at Old Trafford, and may struggle to score more than one goal tomorrow. I'm hoping we can at least keep Stoke out, which is why I am predicting a 1-0 win.
Tomorrow's match referee will be Robert Madley, who is relatively new to the Premier League list, taking charge of just two Spurs games so far. Those were our 2-1 away win against Swansea last December, and (unfortunately) our 2-1 home Cup defeat to Leicester in January.
· Premier League results 10 years ago this week. Spurs had their first two win start for 11 years. Edgar Davids made his league debut.
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