English Premier League: Stoke City vs Tottenham Hotspurs Preview and Match Facts
Stoke City prepare to take on Tottenham at the Britannia Stadium today, 21st August.
Since their promotion to top flight football in 2008, Stoke City have had consistent performances, finishing mid table in each season. They will hope to push forward in what promises to be an unpredictable season. Even though they had a disappointing start to the season, stumbling 2-1 to the Wolves in the first fixture, they will be confident going into the game.
Stoke City Manager, Pulis admitted that he was unhappy with their performance and had hoped that they would perform better, but attributed their loss to an early injury by Kenwyne Jones. Jones was brought on this summer as a record signing for the club and his injury was said to have “knocked the wind out of their sails.”
The former Sunderland player suffered an injury problem in only the 14th minute and had to be taken off. It was feared that the Trinidad & Tobago striker could be out long term, but tests and scans revealed that it was nothing serious. Though he will not feature in tonight’s match, he has already started light training.
Pulis will have to change his line up if he hopes to get a result against Spurs, who are the obvious favorites in this fixture. His options for forwards are: Tuncay Sanli, Mamady Sidibe and Jon Walters. If chosen to play, this will be Walters’s debut for Stoke, after the striker joined for Ipswich a few days ago.
Tottenham return from Europe after an embarrassing defeat to Young Boys, and will be desperate to regain some confidence. The 3-2 loss in Switzerland combined with the 0-0 domestic draw against Manchester City in the opening fixture of the new season doesn’t paint a very convincing picture of a team which is apparently challenging the top four this season.
In the last two meetings between the two sides at the Britannia Stadium there have been three red cards and three penalties. Stoke have only managed to win against Tottenham once in their last four home league matches, and that was 2 years ago in October 2008.
In the previous two seasons in the Premier League, Stoke have managed to win each of their opening home games; 3-2 against Villa in 2008 and 2-0 against Burnley in the 2009 season.
Their win record isn’t too impressive, having only won one of their last seven Premier League matches, drawing two and tasting defeat in four. Stoke’s record against the top flight teams is only better than Wigan Athlectic’s, losing 22 points last season.
Tottenham had 18 shots on target in their match against Manchester City, but failed to score a single goal. They have also lost their last three out of four away Premier League matches, conceding 10 goals.
Against Young Boys in the Europa League play offs, Tottenham conceded three goals for the first time since the 4-1 defeat to Munich in 1982. Additionally, it is worth noting that Roman Pavlyuchenko is Tottenham’s top goal scorer in the 2010 with five goals; however, he has Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch right behind him with 4 goals each.
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