Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
All of a sudden Tottenham fans are allowing them to think that maybe there is a title race on the horizon after all. That’s because after an impressive win away at Burnley last Saturday coupled with Premier League leaders Chelsea’s slip up at home to Crystal Palace the gap at the top has been cut down to single figures and Mauricio Pochettino’s men will look to further erode that gap tonight as they face Swansea
That’s because they travel to a Swansea side who after a decent run of results have found themselves in a rut as of late with a failure to win any of their last three matches, a run that has earned just them a solitary point. That point came on Sunday as they were held by Middlesbrough. A game that neither team wanted to win but the result arguably did neither side any real favours as they bid to beat the drop.
As always with Tottenham when Harry Kane is absent the question that is always asked is how will the supporting cast perform and once again they passed the test with flying colours at the weekend as they ran out 2-0 winners at Turf Moor. A ground in which so many other teams have failed at already this season. An unlikely opener from Eric Dier was most welcomed and then Hueng-min Son’s strike wrapped up a well earned three points.
It was a game of attrition though as Vincent Janssen, Victor Wanyama and Harry Winks all went off injured. For Janssen it was a rare start and he would have no doubt been disappointed to not get a full 90 minutes under his belt, while for the highly rated Winks there was more disappointment as news broke yesterday that he will miss the rest of the season with ankle ligament damage. That is now going to be a test of an already undersized Tottenham squad.
Hueng min-Son started on the bench on Saturday due to being on international duty for South Korea but he will be likely to spearhead the attack this evening and will be part of the attacking triumvirate which is made up of himself, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli. Last season the two sides drew as Christian Eriksen pair of free kicks salvaged a point after Harry Kane’s shanked clearance ended up in the wrong net to put Swansea ahead.
Tottenham will obviously want to go one better and although Swansea are currently 17th in the table this is not going to be an easy trip to The Liberty Stadium. Paul Clement’s side are currently battling for every point in a bid to stave off the drop and it’s fair to say that the fear is just creeping back in again at South Wales as a 3 game winless run has them once again looking over their shoulder especially with Hull now looking resurgent.
With Middlesbrough posing the opposition on Sunday and their aversion to goals you do have to say that Swansea fans will probably look at that as two very important points dropped in their bid for survival. Had it not been for Rudy Gestede’s terrible miss in injury time then it could have been a very unlikely win for Steve Agnew’s men. But that said Swansea did have chances of their own but failed to pull the trigger.
It was an off day for their key man Gylfi Sigurdsson and he will be looking to rediscover the form which saw Swansea previously climb up the table. Not only that but there is the obvious sub-plot of him once again going up against his former club. These are the kind of situations which always sees a player end a barren run so do not be surprised if Sigurdsson gets himself on the scoresheet later on this evening.
Back to back away wins for Tottenham would be an incredible feat especially without their talisman Harry Kane. Can they do it against a Swansea side who are desperate for the points. If Tottenham really want to win the league then these are the games where you need maximum points. It’s not going to be easy but Burnley showed it can be done, I’ll go for a Tottenham win with both teams to score.
