Spurs Preview – Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League – 28 November 2009)

Expected line-ups

Aston Villa: Friedel, Warnock, Cuellar, Dunne, L Young, Reo-Coker, Milner, A Young, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Carew.

Tottenham: Gomes, Assou-Ekotto, Corluka, King, Woodgate, Palacios, Huddlestone, Kranjcar, Lennon, Defoe, Crouch.

TPC’s key battle: Agbonlahor v King

To see the up-to-date injury list for both sides, click here.

Recent meetings

League: Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur, 15-03-2009
League: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Aston Villa, 15-09-2008
League: Aston Villa 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur, 01-01-2008
League: Tottenham Hotspur 4-4 Aston Villa, 01-10-2007
League: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Aston Villa, 26-12-2006

Preview

It is hard to see Villa letting double figures slip past their usually firm back four so in a sense things can only go downhill after last week’s amazing 9-1 victory against Wigan. Fortunately, there is plenty of scope for the goals to dry up a tad and yet for Spurs to still record a decent victory in an important game.

These are the games that will probably decide if Spurs finish the season challenging for a top-four spot or whether we drop back behind the other UEFA Europa League hopefuls. Matches against the teams around us are the equivalent to relegation six-pointers in the race for European slots. If Spurs can take favourable results against the likes of Villa, Everton and Manchester City in the next month then we will have had a very satisfactory start to the campaign and an astonishing one if you look back over all the results in 2009.

For that to happen, Spurs have to put the ease of demolishing a woeful Wigan to the back of their minds without losing the confidence and attacking belief derived from such a performance. In that sense, Harry Redknapp has a few mind games to play with the players to continue in the same form without being overconfident. As it happens, any signs of overconfidence will probably be quickly wiped away by the quality of the opposition.

Villa have the physical threat and pace to trouble Spurs and are genuine contenders to us once again in the league. How Spurs will cope with that is the key to this result. As it happens, keeping an unchanged team may be the best solution as well as being the one most would recommend after our last outing. The extra height of Peter Crouch and Tom Huddlestone make them a better bet than Jermaine Jenas or Robbie Keane, although you still have a nagging doubt about Keane swooning back into the starting eleven.

Jenas offers more mobility and despite Huddlestone’s much-improved performance last time around, that debate will rumble on, just on another day when we don’t have the luxury of a nine-goal showing. Coping with the pace of Agbonlahor and Young will be the hardest tasks and with Vedran Corluka guaranteed to get one of those tasks the other will fall to a centre-back.

Ledley King missed out last time while Sebastien Bassong made a substitute’s return with Michael Dawson fitting into the first team seamlessly. The question is which is best to deal with Agbonlahor. King at his best would be the obvious answer but his best has not been forthcoming this season in between a number of minor injuries to go with his long-term one. If not Ledley, then Bassong may come back in for pace purposes alone, which would be harsh on Dawson as he has not put a foot wrong when called upon this year.

Jermain Defoe said the Wigan result meant nothing unless we won at Villa Park and although that may be going slightly over the top, the momentum will be lost if Spurs at least fail to take anything from the game. A draw may suit both sides as they look to stay in touch with the top four places for the rest of the year, anything more would really represent a purple patch of a week.

Prediction

Aston Villa 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

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