This weekend’s key battle takes place at St. James Park, when Tottenham travel to the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/North-East-c40078 to take on Newcastle United.
The home side goes into this fixture sitting in a respectable ninth place after coming off a 1-1 draw in the “Tyne-Weir Derby” against Sunderland last weekend. After their humiliating FA Cup loss to 4th division side
Stevenage that put them out of this year’s competition, the team needed to refocus themselves and coach Alan Pardew didn’t need to do much to get his players up for the Derby. It’s hard to believe that Newcastle were playing in the Championship (second division)
last season; however, even though they are only 7 points off relegation, they took a pretty safe bet to stay up.
What has been carrying the team this season is the goal-scoring partnership between Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan; combined they have scored 21 goals. However, apart from these two players there are two others that are important
to how this team both defends and attacks. The two players to watch for Newcastle are midfielders Joey Barton and Chiek Tiote, they are the lynch pins of the side. Tiote has the ability to win the ball and move it up the pitch quickly, he’s the player that
sits in front of the back four and cleans up and mistakes. As for Barton, his trouble-making personality gets in the way of his performances and overshadows his quality. He is very versatile as he can play both centrally or on the wing and his crossing technique
put the likes of Carroll and Nolan in dangerous positions. With the transfer window open, teams have shown interest in both players but if Newcastle want to assure Premier League play next season these two have to stay.
As for Spurs, they currently sit in the fifth place and are coming off a 0-0 draw against Manchester United. This team finds themselves in a pretty good position, in the mix for a Top-four place, a Champions League tie with AC
Milan in a few weeks. They are set to welcome in a new signing as midfielder http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aaron-Lennon-c3062
and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luka-Modric-c22857, all capable players. It is expected that Tottenham will also be a selling club, as this squad is way too big with players being wasted, having seen little to no action this season. This team has a pretty hard immediate schedule with away matches
to Fulham, Blackburn and Sunderland, not to mention a first leg Champions League match at the San Siro.
The key player for Spurs in this match is Croatian international Luka Modric. When he’s pulling the strings in the midfield and finding the front men, the team becomes even more dangerous, more options become available then the
typical winger crossing balls into the box.
Even though their last meeting ended 2-0 to Spurs, it was pretty entertaining and is expected to be as such this time around too. Spurs are the most backed team this weekend; the difference could be options off the bench and the
coaching of Harry Redknapp.
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