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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Leicester City v Spurs, 18.05.17

· Last season's game - Leicester 1 Spurs 1, 22.08.15
· This season's home game - Spurs 1 Leicester 1, 29.10.16
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premier League in Match 37 2015-16

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


Full Record of Spurs -v- Leicester City

Premier       Pl  W  D  L   For- Ag Pts
Home          11  4  3  4   19 -18  15
Away          10  3  2  5   12 -18  11
======================================
Total(Prem)   21  7  5  9   31 -36  26
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1)   29 13  6 10   64 -46  34
Away(Div 1)   29 16  4  9   53 -54  40
======================================
Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)    7  3  3  1   12 - 7   9
Away(Div 2)    7  4  1  2   14 -13   9
======================================
Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
======================================
Total(Prem)   21  7  5  9   31 -36  26
Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
======================================
Grand Total   93 43 19 31  174 -156 116
======================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Leicester  -    LDLWWL

Everton    4-2   Leicester
C. Palace  2-2   Leicester
Arsenal    1-0   Leicester
West Brom  0-1   Leicester
Leicester  3-0   Watford
Man City   2-1   Leicester

Spurs      -    WWWWLW

Spurs      4-0   Watford
Spurs      4-0   B'mouth
C. Palace  0-1   Spurs
Spurs      2-0   Arsenal
West Ham   1-0   Spurs
Spurs      2-1   Man Utd

Pos           P   W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 2. Spurs     36 24  8  4  73-24  49   80
11. Leicester 36 12  7 17  46-56 -10   43

Still something to play for!

Cast your mind back, if you will, to Saturday, August 22nd, 2015, for that is when Spurs last visited The King Power Stadium, Leicester for a Premier League game. On that occasion, a 19 year old Dele Alli came off the bench and stooped to score an 81st minute header - his first goal for Spurs - to become the youngest player to score for Spurs since Garth Bale in 2007. This was only Dele's second Spurs appearance (the first had also been off the bench at Old Trafford two weeks before), and he had already won the hearts of Spurs fans. It wouldn't be long before "We've got Alli" would be ringing around White Hart Lane and stadia up and down the country and across Europe.

Since then, Dele Alli has set the English football world alight, winning two consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards, the Spurs Junior player of the Season award, scoring no less than 27 Premier Leagaue goals (He's a midfielder, remember!), and setting records tumbling such as being the first midfielder in Premier League history to score two goals in three consecutive games (Southampton, Watford, Chelsea this season). Dele's best stat is surely the one that ranks him higher than Lampard, Beckham and Gerrard as an under-21 player in terms of goals scored. We were blessed to get Dele Alli indeed, and whilst this week he has been quoted as not being able to guarantee he will always be a Tottenham player (of course he can't do that), we will surely keep him for a while yet.

Going back to that August 2015 game, it was Riyad Mahrez who quickly equalised Dele's goal. Whilst Dele has been just one of several magical players for Tottenham over the last two years, Mahrez and Vardy were magic for Leicester in their title-winning season last year. Mahrez got 17 goals last season, and has just 6 this season. Vardy (now 30 by the way) got 24 last year and has 12 this season. Between them they frightened defences up and down the land last season. The magic for them, and for Leicester disappeared this season under Ranieri. The transfer of this season's player of the season Kante to Chelsea was probably the most massive factor behind Leicester's deterioration.

Under Craig Shakespeare's management since Ranieri was sacked in February, "The Foxes" have risen from 17th and the fear of relegation to as high as 9th, although tonight they sit 11th in the table. Leicester's defence of the title nearly matched the historic relegation of Manchester City back in the 1930s when they were the previous season's Champions, and it remains an even worse defence of the title than that of Chelsea last season, who did muster 50 points.

Leicester did reach the quarter-finals of their first Champions League, where they narrowly lost to Atletico Madrid. When we first entered European football after the Double season, we reached the semi-final, and of course we also reached the quarter-finals of our first Champions League. Now we have won our way to the Champions League for a third time and a second consecutive year. We have been better than Leicester over the last two seasons, and in fact better than everybody over that period, of course, but titles are decided over the course of one season.

Leicester will be seeking to win tonight and on Sunday at home to Bournemouth, in an effort to at least finish in the top half of the table. One of Spurs' remaining targets is to win tonight, or on Sunday to ensure we beat Leicester's total of 81 points reached last season. Pochettino is seeking as many points as possible this week to put us higher in terms of points than the Premier League Champions in many years.

Another target for Spurs in our remaining games is a personal one for Harry Kane. Harry is two goals behind Lukaku and one behind Sanchez. He has a "game in hand" over his competitors and a chance to finish top scorer for a second successive season. That is despite missing 9 games through injury this season!

Harry Kane scored the last ever Spurs goal at our old stadium on Sunday, and Leicester are the last team to have taken a point there when we drew 1-1 in October (Spurs 1 Leicester 1, 29.10.16). Erik Lamela's season had already finished, and now we know that applies to Danny Rose too, as he went under the knife again this week. Both Kieran Trippier (concussion) and Kyle Walker (ankle) will miss tonight's game, so I am assuming Eric Dier will play at right back, although "Poch" may choose a back three with a different wing-back selection. Mousa Dembele is also still nursing a foot injury which prevents him from playing 90 minutes, but he may start tonight.

There should be a great atmosphere tonight. The game will be preceded by the usual "Foxes" clarion call, and we will be plagued by the noise of those "happy clappers". I am hoping for an entertaining game, and hopeful for a Spurs win, but I suspect we may have to make do with a point tonight.

Match referee Michael Oliver becomes our most often seen match official of the season by taking charge for the seventh time. His last game with us was the 2-0 win over Arsenal, and Mr. Oliver's last away Spurs game was Watford on New Year's Day when we won 4-1.

· Reviewing Spurs' last Champions League Season - 2010-11. 6 years ago on May 15th, we beat Liverpool away 2-0. It was only our second Premier League win at Anfield.

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