Spurs v Chelsea preview

Spurs begin their season at Wembley by welcoming last season's champions Chelsea. 

Spurs kicked off their season with an impressive 2-0 away to Newcastle. Dele Alli continued his goal scoring form from last season, by opening his account against Newcastle and will be hoping to add to his two goals he scored against the Blues last season.

Antonio Conte's side started their title defence last week dismally with a 3-2 defeat at home to Burnley and were even 3-0 down at one point

Team News

Spurs

There are no fresh injury concerns for Pochettino. Victor Wanyama and Heung Min Son could return to the starting XI after being rested last weekend, Pochettino will have to decide whether or not he goes back to a 3-4-3 which served him very well last season or whether he'll stick to the 4-2-3-1 he played against Newcastle. Following his man of the match performance last Sunday, Kyle Walker-Peters could be put to a real test against Morata who was very lively when he was brought on against Burnley helping Chelsea retain some pride in their performance.On the other hand Kieran Trippier could be recalled to the squad after his injury but he will be assessed on Saturday.

Chelsea

Conte may not have any new injury concerns but has to find a solution to the gap in defence left by Gary Cahill's suspension. Andreas Christensen will probably get the central role in the back three alongside Azpilicueta and new signing Rudiger. David Luiz could be given a midfield role in the absence of the suspended Cesc Fabregas. Morata could also be given his first start on Sunday on the left hand side of the front three, leaving youngster Jeremie Boga on the bench. Bakayoko could make a return from his injury but his lack of match fitness will probably mean it starts on the bench.

Predicted Line-ups 

Spurs 
Lloris; Dier, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Davies, Dembele, Wanyama,Walker-Peters, Eriksen, Alli, Kane

Chelsea
Courtois, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Luiz, Kante, Moses, Morata, Willian, Batshuayi  

The match is live on Sky Sports main event and Sky Sports Premier league from 3:30. 

5 things we learnt from Luton v Spurs U21's

A lot more physicality in the Checktrade compared to PL2

The Difference between PL2 and Checktrade is the fact that the sides that Spurs face are a lot more physical in their play. In the PL2, most teams play a similar style and is more manageable but in the Checkatrade trophy, the League 2 sides put out strong sides that would normally feature in the League. Spurs found it difficult to play the free flowing expansive football that is their way.

Luton applied pressure heavily when Spurs were in possession and limited them to counter attacks. 

Joe Pritchard impressive in the heart of the Spurs midfield

The Spurs captain for the evening showed that he can control the midfield well. He was rewarded with a goal which did have a stroke of luck about it but was deserved for his work on the night. He

tried to get stuck into as many tackles as possible on the Luton players.

Spurs grew into the game as time went on

At the start of the night, Luton dominated proceedings but after their opener Spurs began to create a bit more and after Pritchard’s goal, Spurs were matching Luton in the middle better and were able to create more chances than those on the counter. In the second half, Spurs were able to get at Luton
more and more, which led to more holes being exploited by the likes of Loft, Miller and Tracey.

Miller and Austin showed why Pochettino took them on the USA tour

On Spurs’ pre-season tour of the USA, a lot of youth players were included in the squad. Of those Will Miller and Brandon Austin featured tonight and really impressed. Austin made a number of key

saves early in the game, when Luton were on top that kept Spurs in it. Austin also impressed with his ball playing ability as he was able to calmly get the ball to feet and help start attacks, which is essential in the modern era. Miller was also very impressive with his link up play, he most reminded me of Harry Winks as he’s ability to play the ball even when under heavy pressure is commendable. His pass to Ryan Loft for Spurs’ second goal was exquisite and even Christian Eriksen would’ve been proud of that one.

Ryan Loft has shades of Harry Kane about him

It might be early to be comparing the Spurs U21 forward to one of Europe’s top strikers but the style of forward Loft is, isn’t to dissimilar to that of Kane. This was most evident in his goal tonight, latching onto Miller’s beautiful through pass and holding off the Luton defender before cooling slotting past the keeper. This is typical Kane and can fill those Spurs fans worried about lack of
signings with mild optimism that we are producing a striker in a similar mould to our no.10. Loft showed all evening that his hold up play is excellent and can bring others into play very well. Defiantly one to watch in the future.   

Luton Town v Spurs U21 preview

Preview Luton Town v Tottenham U21’s

Tottenham begin their first foray into the Checkatrade Trophy with an away fixture against Luton Town.

The Hatters have had a mixed start to the season recording an emphatic 8-2 win over Yeovil in their opening fixture before succumbing to a surprising defeat to Barnet on Saturday.

Luton boss spoke to the club website about this evening’s fixture saying: “We Know how Tottenham are going to play. They aren’t going to change. We come up against a real good development side, and it’ll be a good game.”

Tottenham have had a poor start in their Premier League 2 campaign losing 2-1 away to Sunderland.

Tottenham boss Wayne Burnett told the club website about tonight’s opponents: “ I’ve watched Luton twice now, the last two Saturdays and it will be a very competitive game for us. They won comfortably against Yeovil and they’ve got some very good players with some real league experience in there, plus they’ve lots of depth in their squad so whoever they put out, it will be a real test.”

Today’s Lineup

 Tottenham Hotspur U21

49 Brandon Austin

47 William Miller

48 Jonathan Dinzeyi

50 Joe Pritchard (C)

51 Ryan Loft

52 Christian Maghoma

55 Shilow Tracey

56 Keanan Bennetts

57 Dylan Duncan

60 Japhet Tanganga

71 Oliver Skipp

Subs

54 Kaziah Sterling

58 Jack Roles

59 Samuel Shashoua

64 Jonathan De Bie

65 Timothy Eyoma

Luton Town

36. James Shea

2. James Justin

5 Johnny Mullins (C)

9. Danny Hylton

10 Jordan Cook

14 Harry Cornick

21 Jack Senior

22 Luke Gambin

27 Tyreeq Bakinson

38 Elliot Lee

39 Akin Famewo

Subs

23 Josh McQuiod

35 Arthur Read

40 Harry Isted

41 Jake Peck

42 Ciaren Jones

43 Jack James

45 Michael Shamalo   

Spurs season preview 17/18

Following on from an impressive 16/17 season, Spurs will be looking to go one better this year, especially in the Champions League.

In this preview, I’ll be looking at the three different parts of Spurs’ season and detail out, how each competition might pan out for us.

Premier League

It’ll be hard to follow such an incredible league campaign, but that is the task Mauricio Pochettino has on his hands. The hardest thing that will have to be contended with is the move to Wembley for the season and this apparent ‘curse’ Spurs have at Wembley. There were encouraging signs in the pre-season win over Juventus but, it was only a friendly after all, and how much can really be taken away from a friendly. The most worrying thing to come out of that was the injury to our only senior right back, the extent of Trippier’s injury isn’t known yet but will this finally spring Pochettino into some market action.

Tottenham are the only team in the entire league to not have bought a single player so far, which is admirable of the faith Pochettino has in his current group of players and in the youth prospects on the cusp of the first team like those featured in pre-season like Georgiou, Miller and Walker-Peters. On the other hand, all this faith might be good but with the likes of Man city, United, Chelsea, Arsenal and even Liverpool are Spurs going to be left behind.

If you look around at other previews, people are predicting Spurs to either scrape a top four finish through to struggling to qualify for the Europa League. This will depend on if there is any investment between now and the end of August, and whether or not the free spending clubs’ signings hit the ground running especially the new strikers of Lacazette, Lukaku and Morata.

Predicted finish- 5^th

FA Cup and Carabao Cup

These two cups are a lot harder to predict as to their outcome, as the teams that Spurs could get are as random as it gets. One thing that can be said is that Pochettino needs to take the League Cup, now the Carabao Cup, more seriously as the side that faced Liverpool in last season’s 4^th round contained 10

changes from the Premier League game the previous weekend. The label this team has had now for 3 seasons is that it’s too good not to have won things yet, in the previous two years, Pochettino has fielded weakened teams in Cup competitions to focus on the league which did end in fantastic seasons but no silverware at the end. Going into his fourth season in charge, Pochettino needs to bring home a trophy to convince the bigger players that Tottenham is the place to be in the coming years.

Champions League

Last season’s Champions League campaign could be called nothing short of an embarrassment. Finishing third, in what was considered an easy group and 1 win at home is simply not good enough for a side of our quality. We won’t know our group fate till the end of August but whatever the result we need to add to our squad to help us survive competing on multiple fronts. If we suffer injuries in key areas, especially up front then there is a serious lack of fire power, Son was used as a makeshift forward against Leverkusen last season and it didn’t work as he was just chasing shadows. The lack of squad depth could be the problem with going far in the Champions League but with the right investment and if we hit the ground running at Wembley and adjust our style to fit the bigger pitch then there is no reason why we can’t go far.

Prediction- Quarter Final