Off to Spurs with points still needed
Our trip to Spurs tomorrow should have been our final away game of the season and we would have liked to have enjoyed it knowing that we were secure in the Premier League for another season.
It’s not quite worked out like that. We follow this game with a trip to Villa Park before finishing the season on Sunday next week at home against Newcastle and we know that we are going to need more points if we are to avoid relegation.
If we choose to forget Everton, believing they should be safe now on 36 points, it leaves us needing to match Leeds who have just two games left. If they were to lose both, we would not need anything because of our much better goal difference, but we can’t assume, in fact we can’t expect them to lose those games so the worst case scenario is that we would need to win two of these remaining three games.
If the worst comes to the worst, we can’t be relegated until after the final game but should we win at Spurs tomorrow and then Leeds lose two hours later, we’d be safe for another season with two games spare, although I don’t think any of us are thinking in those terms.
He spoke about the benefit of having experienced players in the dressing room. “We’ve got such an experienced group and we’ve been in this position before. There are quite a few experienced voices in the dressing room, the skipper, Tarky, Bardo. It’s good to have people like that so close to you because they help the team out individually as well. We’ve got a good set of lads here, everyone’s in it together.”
Unfortunately, some of those players aren’t able to help on the pitch. Ben Mee has missed the last ten games and it looks as though he’s going to be joined by James Tarkowski this weekend at least. Since Michael Jackson took over, we’ve lost Ashley Westwood and Matěj Vydra to serious injuries. Add to that the doubts surrounding Jack Cork, added to the recent loss of Jay Rodriguez.
I don’t expect to see Tarky or Jay Rod tomorrow but hopefully Cork will be available and it would be a surprise if fit again Maxwel Cornet didn’t start. It will leave the team looking something like: Nick Pope, Connor Roberts, Nathan Collins, Kevin Long, Charlie Taylor, Dwight McNeil, Josh Brownhill, Jack Cork, Maxwel Cornet, Wout Weghorst, Ashley Barnes. Subs: Wayne Hennessey, Will Norris, Matt Lowton, Phil Bardsley, Bobby Thomas, Erik Pieters, Dale Stephens, Aaron Lennon, Dara Costelloe.
We are facing a Spurs team who are pushing for a Champions League place and have lost just once in their last nine Premier League games, that one at home against Brighton last month. They’ve won six of the other eight including Thursday’s 3-0 home win against North London rivals Arsenal. It’s a result that’s taken them within a point of the Gunners with the two of them fighting for the fourth Champions League place for next season.
Our record there is not good. It will be our eighth Premier League game there, three at White Hart Lane, two at Wembley and this will be our third game at the new stadium where to date we have lost 5-0 and 4-0. Our only point in those Premier League games came in August 2017 when Chris Wood scored a late equaliser with his first Burnley goal. To find points against them away prior to that game we have to go back to the 1974/75 season when two Mike England own goals and a late third from Leighton James gave us a 3-2 win.
Spurs have some injury problems and will be without Cristian Romero, Matt Doherty, Sergio Reguilón, Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga.
Their team for the win against Arsenal was: Hugo Lloris, Davinson Sánchez, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Emerson Royal, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Ryan Sessegnon, Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min, Harry Kane. Subs: Pierluigi Gollini, Harry Winks, Joe Rodon, Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura, Harvey White, Dane Scarlett, Alfie Devine, Matthew Craig.
LAST TIME WE WERE THERE
There isn’t anything positive to report from our last visit on the last day of February last year. We were a goal down in only the second minute when Gareth Bale opened the scoring and Harry Kane doubled their advantage on the quarter hour.
Having lost there 5-0 in the previous season, it looked as though it was going to be even worse second time round but somehow we managed to keep it to four on a day when, thankfully, we saw Chris Wood return from injury and Lewis Richardson come on close to the end for a first team debut.
The teams were;
Tottenham: Hugo Lloris, Serge Aurier (Matt Doherty 81), Davinson Sánchez, Toby Alderweireld, Sergio Reguilόn, Tanguy Ndombele, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Gareth Bale (Erik Lamela 70), Lucas Moura (Dele Alli 66), Son Heung-min, Harry Kane. Subs not used: Joe Hart, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks, Carlos Vinícius.
Burnley: Nick Pope, Matt Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee, Charlie Taylor, Josh Brownhill, Ashley Westwood, Jack Cork (Dale Stephens 81), Dwight McNeil, Jay Rodriguez (Lewis Richardson 88), Matěj Vydra (Chris Wood 73). Subs not used: Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Phil Bardsley, Kevin Long, Jimmy Dunne, Anthony Glennon, Josh Benson.
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