· Last season's game - Southampton 0 Spurs 2, 19.12.15
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premier League in Match 18 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- Southampton

Prem         Pl    W   D   L   For- Ag  Pts
Home         17   12   2   3   39 - 17  38
Away         17    5   4   8   17 - 20  19
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Total(Prem)  34   17   6  11   56 - 37  57
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Football Lge
Home(Div 1)  22   13   4   5   52 - 28  38
Away(Div 1)  22    6   8   8   25 - 35  24
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Total(Div 1) 44   19  12  13   77 - 63  62
==========================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)  14    9   3   2   41 - 12  21
Away(Div 2)  14    2   5   7   12 - 17   9
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Total(Div 2) 28   11   8   9   53 - 29  30
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Total(Prem)  34   17   6  11   56 - 37  57
Total(Div 1) 44   19  12  13   77 - 63  62
Total(Div 2) 28   11   8   9   53 - 29  30
==========================================
Grand Total 106   47  26  33  186 -129 149
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Last Six Premier League results:-

S'hampton  -    DWLWDW

S'hampton  0-0   Liverpool
S'hampton  1-0   Everton
C. Palace  3-0   S'hampton
S'hampton  1-0   M'brough
Stoke      0-0   S'hampton
B'mouth    1-3   S'hampton

Spurs      -    WLWLWW

Spurs      3-2   West Ham
Chelsea    2-1   Spurs
Spurs      5-0   Swansea
Man Utd    1-0   Spurs
Spurs      3-0   Hull
Spurs      2-1   Burnley

Pos           P   W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
5. Spurs     17  9  6  2  29-12  17   33
8. S'hampton 17  6  6  5  17-16   1   24

Let the thumb-twiddling end!

Spurs and Southampton fans have been left bereft of their Boxing Day fix of football, and even left without a game on Bank Holiday Tuesday, whilst the rest of the Premier League played game 18 of this season's programme (Liverpool played Stoke tonight). For many fans, three full days without their traditional dose of Christmas football is hard to bear, so at last we can say "Let the thumb-twiddling end!"

Football fans who fancy a bet will have been busy on Boxing Day, examining the odds for the feast of games that were played. Whilst there is a game on TV every day this week, those fans have to wait till this coming New Year's Week-End to look for a massive choice of specials which give them the best prices, and the best odds. In the meantime, let's think about our game tomorrow.

The last time we played Southampton was not a happy occasion for Spurs, coming at White Hart Lane at the end of a season where we had sniffed a chance of title glory, but saw it drift into the wind with that 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. Ronald Koeman brought "The Saints" to the Lane, and they took all three points thanks to a disheartened home team performance and two goals by midfielder Steve Davis, who has yet to score for his club this season.

Last year's away game at St Mary's was a happier occasion for Spurs, and this came a week before Christmas. We won 2-0 with goals by Harry Kane and Dele Alli, lifting us to fourth place in the Premier League. Sadly, the fact that both Arsenal and Man City won yesterday means that we are simply fighting to retain our three point lead over Man Utd, who also won yesterday. Everton's win at Leicester has lifted them back above Southampton, but manager Claude Puel had the satisfaction of beating his predecessor Ronald Koeman recently at St Mary's.

When you consider the players that Southampton have lost in recent years, plus the fact their manager deserted to Goodison Park, you have to take your hats off to them for the results they have managed this season, which include reaching the EFL Cup semi-final, where they will meet Liverpool and some of their former players. New manager Claude Puel has settled in well, after his move from his previous post in Nice. The only real disappointmemt for "The Saints" so far this term has been their failure to make the knock-out phase of The Europa League. They were unlucky in this respect as they finished third behind Hapoel Be'er Sheva, and actually had a better goal difference. However, Hapoel managed an away goal at The St. Mary's Stadium, which gave them the upper hand in the "head to head" statistics in two drawn games.

Southampton Football Club was formed by members of "The St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association" in November 1885. In 1894, the club became Southampton St Mary's in what was their inaugural year in The Southern League.

Spurs first met Southampton in competition as FA Cup holders in January 1902. Both teams were still outside the Football League. The first match at White Hart Lane and the replay at The Dell were both drawn. Unfortunately Spurs were knocked out in the second replay, played at Reading's Elm Park, when "The Saints" won 2-1.

It was a full 26 years before the two clubs met again in September, 1928. This was a Division Two match played at The Dell, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Spurs won the home game, played in January 1929, 3-2 with goals by Frank Osborne, Cecil Poynton (from the penalty spot), and "Taffy" O'Callaghan. Poynton was a left back, and only ever scored three goals for Tottenham, with whom he played his only professional football between 1923 and 1933. 33 years later when Spurs first met Southampton in the first tier of the Football League, Poynton would be the man with the bucket of water and cold sponge attending to any player injured during the game! Spurs beat Southampton 5-3 that day with a Greaves penalty, two goals by Cliff Jones, and goals by Alan Mullery and Dave Mackay. Ron Davies (2) and Terry Paine scored for "The Saints". Martin Chivers was in the Southampton side. I do believe I was at this game.

I remember a meeting at Southampton at this time 16 years ago, on December 27th, 2000. (Southampton 2 Spurs 0, 27.12.2000. Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle was in charge at The Dell, whilst George Graham was in charge at Spurs. Glen would take Graham's place before the end of the season, but ultimately that didn't work out too well either. James Beattie and Kevin Davies (later to play at Bolton) were Spurs' chief tormentors on that day, and Spurs travelled back to London with their tails between their legs. The late Dean Richards was a Southampton defender at that time, and would subsequently come to Spurs. It took Graham's side until February that season to win an away game, and then we managed just two league wins away all season, even when Glenn took over. Compare that with our record of away wins in recent years!

Last year's match carries better memories, of course! Harry Kane and Dele Alli scored our goals towards the end of the first half, and the three points took us into fourth place.

A win will not be easy, of course, not least because we will be playing in front of a fan base who naturally dislike us for poaching their players and a manager! Southampton have got former Spurs target and one-time England International Jay Roddriguez back to fitness, and bang in form judging by his two goals on Sunday 18th December in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth. Rodriguez, born in Burnley, and signed from the Lancashire club by Southampton, played his one England International against Chile (England lost) in November 2013. Rodriguez suffered a cruciate knee injury in April 2014, and played no part in the following season, and little part in 2015-16. In that time, Rodriguez has seen players such as Lovren, Lallana, Clyne and now Saido Mane leave for Liverpool, and now of course Spurs have Toby Alderweireld (who was a loan player at St. Mary's) and Victor Wanyama. That is not a complete list of exiting players either! Recent stories suggest now that Manchester City have their eyes on Southampton's Dutch International defender Virgil Van Dijk. It must really hurt to be a Southampton fan and to know their club just cannot keep its best players.

The Spurs team news was given before Christmas, when Mauricio Pochettino confirmed that both Toby Alderweireld and Vincent Janssen would be back, but that Erik Lamela will still not be ready. We must hope that Erik is fit really soon! Spurs fans got their best Christmas present, of course, with the news of Hugo Lloris signing a new contract, adding to the long list of players who have renewed this year.

I am going for a Spurs win tomorrow, and have predicted a 2-0 scoreline.

Referee Mike Dean will be in charge of a Spurs game for the third time already this season. His last such game was our home win against West Ham, in which he awarded that late winning penalty. Mr Dean is our most experienced Premier League referee, and I was amazed to hear that last week's Merseyside Derby match was his first such game. Mr. Dean is often awarded such high pressure games, and in October took charge of the Birmingham v Aston Villa game. He has been in the middle for 14 of the 17 Premier League games available to him so far this season.

· Reviewing Spurs' last Champions League Season - 2010-11 (1)On Boxing Day 6 years ago Rafa van der Vaart scored both our goals in a 2-1 win at Villa Park!

· Reviewing Spurs' last Champions League Season - 2010-11 (2)...and on 28th December, 2010, we beat Newcastle 2-0 at home! Former Southampton player Gareth Bale scored one of our goals!

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