Following weekend victories for Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, it is now set us up for an exciting game tonight, where if Spurs win at City’s Eastlands stadium, we’ll wrap up fourth position in the Premiership.

At one point, City were losing to Aston Villa after John Carew scored but unfortunately for Spurs they came back and beat Villa 3-1.

Spurs on the other hand beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 with a stunning long range effort from Tom Huddlestone. The victory was deserved, even though Bolton didn’t have much to play for, they kept trying and thankfully didn’t come up with anything.

I would dearly love Spurs to get a win at City tonight, although, this being Spurs it is never simple. Anyone remembering what happened at West Ham a few years ago knows full well anything can happen. I just hope Spurs have employed a food taster for pre-match meals.

The referee tonight is Steve Bennett, who interestingly has only referred just two Spurs games all season. Wonder why that is.

From Harry Redknapp’s comments earlier, it sounds like it’s going to be a pretty open game, and they have some fine quality players with Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Craig Bellamy. The aforementioned are suspect temperament-wise but one cannot doubt their ability, and recently City have scored quite a few goals.

Interesting that ex-Spurs ‘keeper Marton Fulop will be in goal for City, he of course conceded a goal a minute after he came on as substitute for Sunderland when they visited the Lane earlier in the season.

The big question for us is who will be in goal for Spurs? Heurelho Gomes has a groin problem and we really need him, as there’s question marks surrounding Ben Alnwick. Also, as always, we have doubts over Ledley King, who played at the weekend.

I’m guessing if Harry is expecting an open game then he’ll stick with Luka Modric and Huddlestone in the centre of midfield. As we saw against Old Trafford a few weeks back, Wilson Palacios came back from suspension and didn’t play too well. So I’m expecting an unchanged team apart from the possibility of Gomes and King being out.

So what will happen? We do have a good record up at City, but with their influx of cash and better quality players, they’ve certainly improved. I’m sure they remember their defeat at White Hart Lane, which was their former manager Mark Hughes’ last game in charge, so perhaps they’ll be after blood.

I do have a feeling that we can get three points at City, but we’ve got to keep our heads. We’ve also got to start being more clinical, as tonight if we don’t, it could be costly.

Tags: Ben Alnwick, Bolton Wanderers, Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Harry Redknapp, Heurelho Gomes, John Carew, Ledley King, Luka Modric, Manchester City, Mark Hughes, Marton Fulop, Steve Bennett, Tom Huddlestone, Wilson Palacios

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Well last week’s trip to Manchester United was yet another disappointment after two cracking results against Arsenal and Chelsea.

I don’t know what it is, whether it’s a mental problem or not, but we just don’t seem to be able to get good results at places like that.

We have a decent enough team, we’ve been in great form, but whatever it is, it just isn’t enough.

Today though Bolton Wanderers come to the Lane. Last season we beat them 2-0 at home with Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent scoring. If you remember they had Gavin McCann sent off.

Usually they’re a tough side to play against, but as we showed earlier this season in the FA Cup, we can beat them at home, with or without the help of a few own goals.

Bolton beat Stoke City away 2-1 a few weeks back and only lost by a goal at Chelsea recently, so looks like we might have to be patient to get on the score sheet.

They are safe from relegation, so only pride to play for, whereas we’re still in fourth position and have lots to play for.

I really hope we get a win today, we certainly need it, and with Jermain Defoe playing his 400th career game today, let’s hope he can top it off with a few goals and a win.

Tags: Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, Darren Bent, Gavin McCann, Jermain Defoe, Manchester United, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Stoke City

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So later we take on Manchester United at Old Trafford. What’s the first thing to do? Yes, see who the referee is. Thankfully it isn’t Howard Webb, but Andre Marriner instead. Whether the latter will go down in the memories of Spurs fans as being a United fan is yet to be seen.

Team news-wise it’s looking better with Wilson Palacios back after his suspension. Also Ledley King and Jermaine Jenas could be available too.

The biggest news is that Aaron Lennon could be involved. Must say the prospect of having Gareth Bale down the left wing and Lennon down the right is mouth watering.

Even though we’ve won our last two games, I think Palacios will come in and strengthen the midfield, partnering Tom Huddlestone. Luka Modric I’m guessing would then move out to the right, where I don’t think he’s as effective.

I do wonder if there’ll be any changes upfront as Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko haven’t scored in open play for a month. Eidur Gudjohnsen could come in and play deeper.

Of course, it’s always tough at Old Trafford, however, over the years we’ve threatened to get a good result there. Sadly though, there always seems something, or should that be someone, who always tips the balance in United’s favour. I think we’re due a result there, and now is a good time to get it.

Tags: Aaron Lennon, Andre Marriner, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gareth Bale, Howard Webb, Jermain Defoe, Jermaine Jenas, Ledley King, Luka Modric, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Tom Huddlestone, Wilson Palacios

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In the space of a few days, Spurs have beaten not only beaten third place Arsenal 2-1, they’ve today beaten Chelsea 2-1. Fantastic!

Chelsea’s performance today was quite shocking, they looked like what they are, a team of over-the-hill players. Sure, they threatened, but Spurs were more than a match for them with a work-rate that a Premiership winning side would be proud of.

Michael Dawson was his usual self, dominating whatever or whoever came into his path – how come he isn’t first choice for England at centre-half I’ll never know! But the whole defence and midfield stood firm, making sure Chelsea had no time and space to create chances.

Once again Gareth Bale raided down the left hand side of midfield and got behind their right-back Paulo Ferreira on several occasions, one time it looked like we should have been given a penalty when the Welshman was brought down, however, it wasn’t long until we got a penalty after John Terry handballed a David Bentley cross. Jermain Defoe didn’t miss this time!

Just before half time Bale not only charged by Ferreira, he scored after cutting inside on to his right foot and firing into Petr Cech’s near post. It was such a fantastic goal, and just shows how Bale is getting better and better.

In the second half we had plenty of chances to go even further ahead, for example Defoe through on goal but couldn’t find a way passed Cech. Bale too one-on-one with Cech, but he fired wide. Same too for Roman Pavlyuchenko, but again wide. No joy!

Even after Chelsea were down to ten men following John Terry’s red card, they still looked like they could conjure up a goal, and they did after Frank Lampard tapped home a Michael Ballack cross, thankfully it was late too late and Spurs got back to where they belong, fourth place!

Tags: Chelsea, David Bentley, Frank Lampard, Gareth Bale, Jermain Defoe, John Terry, Michael Ballack, Michael Dawson, Paulo Ferreira, Petr Cech, Roman Pavlyuchenko

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After a fantastic win on Wednesday against Arsenal, this afternoon Chelsea are the visitors to White Hart Lane.

Currently we’re 5th in the Premier League, two points behind Manchester City, with a game in hand, who at the moment of writing, are playing at home against rivals Manchester United. Hopefully, United will pull off a win, as we need City to drop points.

Chelsea being the top of the league will be tough opponents, as we’ve seen in the past, however, we know we can beat them.

Sadly there’ll be no Niko Kranjcar, who is out for the rest of the season with an ankle ligament injury. Vedran Corluka and Jermain Jenas are still out. Wilson Palacios is still suspended, but thankfully this will be his last game.

There’s question marks whether Ledley King will play due to his long standing injury problems, Harry Redknapp says the defender is a ‘possibilty’ to play, let’s hope so, as he was just sublime against Arsenal.

Aaron Lennon won’t play but it’s wonderful to hear he’s back in full training. He’d give the team such a boost if he was available for the rest of the games.

I’m guessing Younes Kaboul will continue at right-back due to Corluka’s injury. I have to admit, he was pretty solid against Arsenal, although for some unknown reason they didn’t really try to test him.

I doubt there’ll be too many changes all in all, afterall, you don’t change a winning team. I do wonder what will happen upfront, as Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko didn’t really combine very well. So perhaps Peter Crouch will come in or Eidur Gudjohnsen will face his former club?

For sure it’ll be another big test for us, but like I said prior to the Arsenal game, we’ve got good form at home, so let’s hope we can pull off another exciting victory!

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So happy that Spurs managed to pull off an outstanding 2-1 win over Arsenal. Sure, it was a tough game with Arsenal having lots of possession, but for most part of the game, they failed to break Spurs down.

The opening goal was just fantastic, Danny Rose got on the end of an Almunia clearance and volleyed home from 30-yards out. Admittedly, I was shocked to see it go in, but a good kind of shocked!

Rose was a surprise starter in place of David Bentley, but with goals like that, hopefully he’ll have more chances in the Spurs first team.

The second half started and soon after Gareth Bale had put us two-nil up. Jermain Defoe with a beauty of though ball found Bale in the penalty area, who just tucked the ball home. How Bale ended up in a striking position I’ll never know, but the Welshman is so full of running, you can expect him to appear anywhere on the pitch at any time!

Of course, even being 2-0 up the game was never over, especially against a side like Arsenal. They pressed and pressed and eventually got their goal through Bendtner, this despite some wonderful goalkeeping from Gomes.

Thankfully they failed to get the equaliser with Gomes and our defenders standing firm. Michael Dawson was his usual solid self after the disappointment of the weekend, also Ledley King was outstanding considering how long he’d been out injured.

All in all, a wonderful victory that puts the horrors of Sunday to the back of one’s memory.

Tags: Arsenal, Danny Rose, David Bentley, Gareth Bale, Heurelho Gomes, Jermain Defoe, Ledley King, Michael Dawson

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Well it didn’t go too well on Sunday, did it? I’m still pretty ticked off over it. Sure we didn’t perform to our best, but we still should have won. We had so much possession, plenty of shots, as well as some quite good opportunities to score, but like games against Stoke and Wolves, we just can’t get the ball across the opposition’s goal line.

We can blame the pitch, which let’s face it certainly contributed to Portsmouth’s first goal, and we can blame the referee for ruling out clear goals and giving penalties when he shouldn’t, but the fact is we should have enough quality and know how that these decisions shouldn’t count as much.

So now our FA Cup dreams are over, we only have the little matter of hosting Arsenal tonight. It should be a good game, as it’s unlikely Arsenal will play ‘anti-football’ like Portsmouth, although with no Wilson Palacios due to him finally getting his yellow card on Sunday, and no Niko Kranjcar to injury, it’s going to be tough. Some good news though is that Ledley King could return.

Sol Campbell is likely to play against us, which always brings added ‘entertainment’.

We’ve got good form at home, and we really need to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointment, so let’s hope we can get a positive morale boosting victory tonight!

Tags: Ledley King, Niko Kranjcar, Sol Campbell, Wilson Palacios

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I’ve finally managed to fix the blog, as there was quite a few problems with it. All should be working fine now.

Ironically this comes on a pretty big day for Spurs – an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley!

A week ago I would have been confident, however, our performance at Sunderland was pretty poor. Of course, ‘freakish’ refereeing decisions and fluke goals didn’t help.

I’m hoping today’s referee Alan Wiley will have a good game and not make any silly decisions. It’s so irritating when referees don’t do their job properly – Howard Webb take note!

I’m really concerned over the injuries of late, the loss of Michael Dawson for example against Sunderland was huge. We need him! I also think Tom Huddlestone is a key player for us, with his ability to pass the ball around.

Sadly though, no Aaron Lennon for today’s game. It sounds like he’s on his way back though, just not yet. Yesterday whilst watching Chelsea beat Aston Villa in the other FA Cup semi-final, seeing Ashley Young reminded me of Lennon, of course, Lennon is far superior, but I so miss having him giving left-backs nightmares.

So will we win? Well Portsmouth have had a tough time with injuries too, but apparently they have few players returning from injury, so it’s difficult to say. We did beat them 2-0 at the Lane a few weeks back, so we should be confident of getting the win. Sadly, this is Spurs, and nothing is ever straight forward. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope we can make it to the Final!

Tags: Aaron Lennon, Alan Wiley, Ashley Young, FA Cup, Michael Dawson, Portsmouth, Tom Huddlestone

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The season has kicked off and Spurs have started well with a 2-1 home win over Liverpool.

I was happy with the performance on Sunday, Liverpool had their usual amount of possession, but they looked rather toothless in attack. Even Steven Gerrard failed to provide much punch upfront.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s first goal for the club was a wonderful effort from just outside the box, I do hope he can score more goals now that he has broken his duck, as he’s got such a sweet left foot on him.

Gomez had a moment of madness bringing down Glen Johnson in the penalty area to allow Liverpool to level at 1-1. Can’t blame the Brazilian, he obviously thought he could get the ball – sadly, he didn’t.

Defender Sebastien Bassong looked at home alongside Ledley King in defence, he also looked quite well at home in the opposition’s penalty area, as he scored the winner with a cracking header from a corner.

All in all, it was a promising start with some fine performances, especially from Ledley King and Wilson Palacios. I really do hope we can maintain our performances. If so, we should be in for a good season.

Now Spurs tonight play at Hull City, who we beat 3-0 only a few weeks back to lift the Barclays Asia Trophy. It’ll be an interesting test following Hull’s 2-1 defeat at Chelsea last weekend.

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It has been quite some time since my last post, a lot has happened. The main thing is that Spurs managed to avoid relegation to remain a Premiership club.

Now it’s the close season and all the talk is about transfers. So far, the only signing is an ex-Arsenal youngster called Anton Blackwood. Ricardo Rocha has been released, and Didier Zokora has left for Sevilla.

At present there’s plenty of talk on who could be coming to the Lane. Ashley Young, Peter Crouch, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar are a few being bandied around.

There’s also a lot of talk on who will exit the club. Tom Huddlestone, Darren Bent, David Bentley to name a few.

I think the present squad is pretty good. We’ve got two very good goalkeepers. The defence is strong, although a new experienced centre-half would be a useful addition to act as cover with Michael Dawson. With Zokora’s departure, a new defensive midfielder would be a good idea, as we’ve only got Wilson Palacios who can play there. Of course, as always, a left winger would be great, but, well, let’s not hold our breaths. Upfront is an area which is up for much debate. We’ve got four quality strikers, however there’s question marks on whether they can play together.

I think with a few new additions we should be more than capable of qualifying for Europe next season, especially if we can maintain our excellent home form. That said, we must keep Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King fit, as without them, our defence becomes too vulnerable. Also I hope Aaron Lennon can continue improving his game, as he most certainly shone last season.

Tags: Anton Blackwood, Ashley Young, Darren Bent, David Bentley, Didier Zokora, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Peter Crouch, Ricardo Rocha, Tom Huddlestone

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