Monday, December 24, 2007

Spurs v Fulham - Match Preview

A short trawl through the Internet to see what is being said about the Boxing Day game. The BBC state that Spurs will be without Ledley King, Anthony Gardner, Gareth Bale, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Didier Zokora. Whilst Darren Bent (hip), Michael Dawson (migraine), Ricardo Rocha (thigh) and Jermaine Jenas (ankle) are all doubtful. Fulham's only new injury concern is Elliott Omosuzi who injured his leg in the game against Wigan. Ray Lewington will remain in charge of the team, will be looking to achieve the seemingly impossible and win away from home for the first time since November 2006.

The
Spurs Odyssey site point out that "Despite their 2-1 defeat on Saturday, Spurs remain in the top six form sides in the Premier League based upon the last 6 games, with 3 wins and a draw during that time. Fulham on the other hand are in the bottom three of that league, without a win, and having dragged themselves out of the bottom three of the league table with a draw in their last game at home to Wigan" but are aware that "Ray Lewington has had a little more time to work with his squad. Fulham do have good players, including Simon Davies playing some of his best football since he left us".

The Proud Cockerill reckon we'll suffer the backlash of their defeat against Arsenal. "A couple of resounding wins against weak sides will put us in good spirit for a climb up the table and assault on cup glory, while an unthinkable blank period will see us back worrying about the basement battle. The latter really should not occur as Spurs have been on an outstanding run since Juande Ramos took over. Even on Saturday, Spurs proved that they can match any team in the effort stakes and that has been half the trouble over the past couple of seasons at least".

There's a number of new names in the frame for the manager's job. No doubt some are press speculation rather than genuine candidates. For now though Ray Lew's back in the job, I noticed in a recent programme that he's our fourth longest serving manager, and there's a nice interview with him on
the Offal. He's a decent bloke and does know his stuff so we're in safe hands.

No comments: