The Sky cameras will be following Spurs down the M40, to the Midlands to cover their game against Aston Villa on Boxing Day. Sky are certainly buying into the consensus that Spurs are a good team to watch. This will be the 13th time that Spurs have appeared on their cameras this season already. Will it prove an unlucky 13 for Tottenham?.
Last season Spurs and Villa were fighting it out with Man City for that elusive fourth premier league place. This season Spurs are in the knockout stages of the champions league and fifth in the table, while Villa are 10 places and seven points worse off. Villa have found themselves being overtaken by Spurs in recent seasons, their current interest in signing Robbie Keane and David Bentley (mere squad players at Spurs) only stands to accentuate that fact.
Since the departure of Martin O Neill in very unceremonious circumstances, Villa have been unable to find any sort of form and have started to leak goals at an alarming rate. They have conceded an average of 2 goals per game over the past 8 matches. Spurs with all their attacking intent can capitalise on this, if they get at Villa early on in the game.
I expect Houllier to have written a rousing speech in his programme notes, probably something along the lines of “I have never liked Spurs ….honest!” after his comments at the recent Liverpool game. It’s a shame he never Managed Spurs before, or I could have just written a 3-0 Spurs win at the top of this article, and posted it !.
Houllier needs to get the Villa crowd behind the team and will be looking for them to drive his players forward and provide them with some much needed confidence. Spurs have to combat this by starting the game on the front foot. The problem for Spurs is that starting a game strongly has not been their forte this season. Wolves, Arsenal, Liverpool and of course Villa, are all teams that Spurs have had to come from behind to claim all three points against. If they go a goal behind to Villa at their place, it will be just what they need and Spurs could end up with a repeat of the recent Bolton game, where they lost 4-2.
Spurs will need to get Modric on the ball early and frustrate Villa, so that the crowd cannot play the important part that Houllier will be hoping for. Spurs will look to utilise Bale and Lennon as much as possible, as they have done to great success this season, Villa also posses dangerous wide players in Downing and Albrighton. I would expect to see both teams keeping a fairly wide formation which will ultimately create space in the center of the pitch. It is from here that Spurs could win the game.
Villa have tall and fairly slow centre backs in Dunne, Cueller and Collins, who would prefer to play against similar sized and equally as mobile centre forwards. I would like to see Harry stick with the Defoe and Pavlychenko partnership up front for this game, rather than deploy Peter Crouch. Defoe and Pavlychenko are far more mobile and will look to make runs in behind the Villa defence which is exactly the way to get at their rather dubious back line. This is where Luka Modric will come in. He is on top form this season and he will have a lot of time and space against Villa. He will be up against a fairly ordinary Villa Midfield who will struggle to cope with a player who has dominated far better opposition on numerous occasions this season. Both teams will play wide formations leaving more space for Modric to operate, plus he will have willing runners up front, either side of the centre backs to whom he can pick his passes.
Form can count for very little in Football but confidence is something that can win you matches. Spurs have confidence in abundance at the moment and Villa can only dream of having the self belief of the Spurs players. This game could pivot on an early goal, for either side.
If Spurs score first in this game, then I can see them going on to collect all three points. If they start poorly and give Villa an early advantage then it could be a difficult fight back from the canvas on Boxing Day.
Some Related Spurs Posts:Palacios Could Make Spurs’ Season Something To Crow AboutSpurs End 17 Year Run To Beat Arsenal At The EmiratesHarry Needs To Toughen Up To Save Spurs’ SeasonDefoe Back In November. Nurofen For Mr Redknapp!Bolton Vs Spurs At The Reebok. Back To Earth With A Bang?
Category: Harry Redknapp, Premier League, Team News
Tags: Harry Redknapp, Premier League, Team News« AC Milan? Spurs Always Do Things The Hard Way | Home | Comments | Add your comment mark | December 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
your an idiot.
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