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tottenham-100x500With just one point won from seven away games this season and with just one goal scored in those games, we are clearly second favourites tomorrow when we face Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

A Sam Vokes penalty at Southampton when 3-0 down, a 0-0 draw at Manchester United, and improved second half performances at Stoke and West Ham are about all we have in credit on the road.

It’s nothing new for us in the Premier League. In our first season we won just four points all season away from home and last time, two seasons ago, we won three and drew five, two of those wins coming in the last two games at Hull and Aston Villa when we didn’t really have much to play for.

There is no doubt that it is always going to be more about home points than away points when it comes to us surviving or not, and thankfully we are certainly picking up more home points this time round than we did in 2014/15 having already won more than we did in the whole of that season.

But we do need to offer more away from home. What we have to try and do is stay in games. That’s something we did last Wednesday and when you are only a goal behind as you go into the closing minutes there is always a chance you might get something. We can’t afford to be going three goals down as we did at Chelsea, when they were far too good for us, Leicester and Southampton, or, even worse, four down at West Brom.

The Spurs game will undoubtedly be a tough one but it is one Ben Mee is looking forward to as he faces a battle against England striker Harry Kane who scored in this fixture on the same weekend two years ago.

“It’s going to be a tough game but it’s enjoyable pitting your wits against players like that,” he said. “It’s been a good experience this season. We would like to pick up some results away from home which would make it even better.”

On the contrast between home and away form, he added: “It’s difficult to get your head round it but we need to perform away from home, which we haven’t been doing. That’s the bottom line. We need to play like we do at home, without fear, and prove we can play away from home.”

Mee is one of three ever presents in the side, the other two being his defensive partner Michael Keane and midfielder Dean Marney and all three you would expect to play tomorrow.

There has been no reports of any injuries but the news is better regarding Johann Berg Gudmundsson who has a chance of playing after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury.

It’s difficult to determine what the team might be and as to whether Sean Dyche will make changes from the team that lost at West Ham which was: Tom Heaton, Matt Lowton, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Stephen Ward, George Boyd, Jeff Hendrick, Dean Marney, Scott Arfield, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs: Paul Robinson, Jon Flanagan, James Tarkowski, Steven Defour, Michael Kightly, Ashley Barnes, Patrick Bamford.

Spurs go into the game in fifth place knowing a win could take them up to fourth if Manchester City lose against their rivals Arsenal. They will certainly provide us with a very difficult task as one of the three teams unbeaten at home, the others being Everton and Liverpool.

Only Liverpool and Leicester have taken points from White Hart Lane, both in 1-1 draws while all of Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Manchester City, West Ham, Swansea and Hull have gone home with nothing. They’ve certainly been banging in the goals too at home with 11 scored in the last three games.

Away from the Premier League they didn’t have a good experience in this season’s Champions League having finished last season in third place in the league. Opting to move their home games to Wembley due to the reduced capacity at White Hart Lane, they were drawn in a group with Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco and CSKA Moscow. They won only one of the three home games and ended third in the group with Monaco, the winners, and Leverkusen winning through which means they will now play in the Europa League.

Back to the league, and they don’t have problems scoring goals. Their leading goalscorer is Harry Kane with seven, including two penalties, and also on five goals in open play are Son Heung-min and Christian Eriksen.

Spurs will be hoping for good news on Mousa Dembélé who missed their midweek game against Hull after picking up a foot injury at Manchester United last Sunday. He will be assessed today after training. There’s also good news on striker Vincent Janssen who is also back in training.  The one player definitely ruled out is Erik Lamela who is sidelined with a hip injury.

One player looking forward to the game, although he’s not expected to play, is their right back Kieran Trippier who they signed from Burnley in the summer of 2015. “I’ve still got some good mates there and still keep in touch with them,” he said. “It will be great to catch up, but we’ve got a game to win and it’s important we do that.”

He added: “I hope they can get plenty more points on the board, after this game.”

The win 3-0 win against Hull in midweek came courtesy of two Eriksen goals and one from Victor Wanyama. The Spurs team was: Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Kyle Walker, Victor Wanyama, Christian Eriksen, Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko, Harry Kane, Dele Alli. Subs: Michel Vorm, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, Kieran Trippier, Joshua Onomah, Harry Winks, Ben Davies, Son Heung-min.

 

LAST TIME WE WERE THERE

 

Burnley’s last league game at Tottenham came on 20th December 2014. We went into the game just outside the bottom three having beaten Southampton 1-0 at home a week earlier with a goal from Ashley Barnes.

We turned in a good performance but we were beaten 2-1 with all the goals coming in the first 35 minutes of the game.

There were just over 20 minutes gone when Spurs went in front with a controversial goal. They were given a free kick for hand ball against Michael Keane, a very harsh decision by referee Mike Jones. They took it with a moving ball and played the ball up to an offside Christian Eriksen who, although not playing the ball, was certainly active. Kieran Trippier stopped to appeal and that allowed them to get in a cross that Harry Kane converted.

There was no controversy with the other two goals, both of which were superb efforts. David Jones did superbly to win the ball back for us and find David Jones. He played it forward to Barnes who hit a right foot beauty from outside the box. He said after the game it had been the best goal of his career to date.

But eight minutes later and it was Spurs back in front through Erik Lamela. He might not have been closed down quickly enough but this was a superb finish from the Spurs man, curling the ball into the bottom corner.

The second half was an enthralling 45 minutes of football when both sides could have scored. Ross Wallace came closest for us but Hugo Lloris saved well from one of his trademark free kicks.

It was another defeat but it had been a decent performance by the Clarets.

The teams were;

Tottenham: Hugo Lloris, Kyle Walker, Federico Fazio, Jan Vertonghen, Ben Davies, Ryan Mason (Benjamin Stambouli 44), Nabil Bentaleb, Erik Lamela, Christian Erikson (Danny Rose 90+3), Nacer Chadli, Harry Kane (Roberto Soldado 84). Subs not used: Michel Vorm, Vlad Chiriches, Andros Townsend, Mousa Dembélé.

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd (Michael Kightly 79), Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield (Ross Wallace 79), Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes (Lukas Jutkiewicz 89). Subs not used: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Nathaniel Chalobah.

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