Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Bournemouth

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Saturday 22nd October 12.30pm
Premier League
Vitality Stadium​

Halfway through our run of four consecutive away games and we haven't lost, but we've had two disappointing draws.
We could really do with a lift, I feel, but it'll be a tough match against an in-form team.
They started the season poorly and looked like they might suffer from second season syndrome.
Winning three of the last six and losing only one has put that sort of talk to bed though, for now.
They absolutely battered Hull in their last game too, chalking up their record victory in the Premier League.

Eddie Howe is steadily building himself an impressive reputation, while avoiding controversy.
Winning the Championship, comfortably avoiding relegation and making a decent start to this campaign has put him on many people's radar.
There's some talk of him being considered for big jobs in the future and you can see why.
His sides play decent football, get good results and he comes across very well to the media.
He's still fairly inexperienced at this level though, which might help Bournemouth to keep him.

This might be another tie where we face players with a point to prove.
Wilshere will certainly be a figure of hate and will be fired up, hoping to make his way back to the Goons.
Nathan Ake's another loanee from a London club and the Chelsea youth player was dismissed when playing for Watford against us.
Adam Smith and Charlie Daniels will have different but equally strong motivations, having come through our academy.
Benik Afobe and Junior Stanislas were raised by Arsenal and West Ham, respectively.

This fixture last season was something of a turning point for Harry Kane's season.
He was going through something of a drought and a poor start by our defence was ominous.
Matt Ritchie put the hosts ahead after less than a minute, firing home after errors at the back.
Not what you need when your only striker is struggling to find the net.

Artur Boruc decided to give us a hand though and it was basically all Spurs after the opener.
The Polish keeper brought Kane down unnecessarily, allowing him to level things up from the spot.
Dembele took advantage of hesitancy from a Rose shot to put us ahead and it was still less than 20 minutes in.
Boruc dropped Kane's cross shortly after that, allowing Lamela to extend the lead before half-time.

The second half didn't see any let up and Kane took full advantage to score his second league hat-trick.
An Eriksen cross allowed him to get his brace, as he netted ten minutes after the restart.
Another Boruc error gave him the opportunity to make it three for him and five for us.
His confidence was fully restored at that point and he was happy to take it.

The return leg was a pretty uncompetitive affair, as we comfortably beat a side that had secured safety.
Bournemouth had just won three games on the bounce and made it to 38 points from 31 games.
It was our turn to take an early lead this time, as Kane put away Walker's cross in the first minute.
He made it two on the day and 21 in the league from an Alli pass 15 minutes later.
Eriksen made it three early in the second half, as Boruc palmed out another shot from Kane.

We have no suspensions for this, but Kane and Alderweireld will miss out.
Rose picked up a knock against Leverkusen, but should be available.
Bournemouth have no suspensions either and no definite injuries.
They have a few players that will face late tests though, including Harry Arter.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Wanyama; Sissoko, Eriksen, Alli, Lamela; Janssen.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Dier, Dembele, Onomah, N'Koudou, Son.
League form: DWWWWD.

Bournemouth: Boruc; Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels; Surman, Arter; Stanislas, Wilshere, Ibe; Wilson.
Subs: Federici, Mings, Ake, Gosling, Fraser, King, Afobe.
League form: DWLWDW.

Referee: Craig Pawson. Last season's ref, Roger East, is the fourth official.

Pochettino will rotate after a tough midweek game, but who should come in and who needs a rest?
Should we switch the fullbacks completely, as he usually does or keep one on both in?
Should Son lead the line or has Janssen done enough to keep his place?

 

Paul Stewart retired to Bournemouth (allegedly)

 

Paul Stewart had a holiday in Bournemouth once (allegedly).

 

The virtual <LDL>s are flying in tonight.

 

As has been said many times quality OP PNP. We all appreciate the dedication it must take to do these during the season, fair play to you.

 

Played for both
Darren Anderton
Jermain Defoe
Adam Smith
Charlie Daniels
Lee Barnard
David Button
Shwan Jalal
Nathan Byrne
Harry Redknapp (Spurs trainee, Bournemouth player, managed both)
Kevin Bond (Bournemouth player and manager, Spurs AssMan)

 

I think we would all take any sort of win in this match. We have a really tough run of fixtures after:

Liverpool (a) league cup
Leicester (h) premier league
Bayern Leverkusen (h) CL
Arsenal (a) premier league
West Ham (h) premier league
Monaco (a) CL
Chelsea (a) premier league

Those 7 fixtures are played from 25th October until 26th November, so basically a match every 4-5 days, which will really test our squad.
I'm hoping the injury to Kane has actually done him some good and given him the rest that he hasn't had for the last couple of years.
An in form Kane would totally transform our team right now. We are playing a lot of good stuff but not getting the goals we deserve. It must be frustrating playing as well as we did in the first half on Tuesday but not scoring. It's not surprising our performance dropped in the second half it's unlikely we could keep that up for 90 minutes against a quality team like that.

I would take a sh*t performance and 3 points. We need to stay in touch with city and Arsenal and I'm not that bothered how we do it!

 

I think that run of games could raise our level, we always play better against teams who want to play football.

Excluding the last team in the list obviously.

 

We are playing Leicester and West Ham in that run as well.....

 

Right! ignore what I said.

 

In summary, the PL games are :

- the NLD
- two cup finals for other lesser London teams
- the return to WHL of the most attackingest side ... in the world. Ever.

 

The cup game against Pool really isn't worth more than a bit of pride and bragging rights tbh. No way will Poch risk key players for that with Leicester and a crucial "home" tie against Bayer to follow in quick succession. I fully expect to see the same side who beat Gillingham, with Son starting up top against Leicester and then Janssen back in for Bayer.

Various estimates indicate that Kane will be back and in contention for the Arsenal match and if not that then definitely the West Ham match. As others have noted, that and Chelsea are cup finals for those teams and they always seem to produce miraculously good performances against us, whilst the Monaco away game may will either be the 1st place decider or a must-win if we screw up against Bayer. Either way it's the second half of that set of fixtures that worries me more, so Kane's return will be essential.

 

Is Kane and Toby out confirmed ?

 

Yep, for Saturday. Somewhere on here there is Poch's full press conference, and they are both doing well, but out for Saturday. Rose is a doubt too.

 

And they wonder why we laugh at them...









Bonus points for the bellend calling other fans insecure when their entire feed is a list of tweets trying to claim Wheelchair is the man to take Arsenal forward.

 

The world has given up waiting ages ago for a Wheelchair masterclass
against ANY opposition.

 

These fixtures in terms of our opposition really haven't worked out well, have they? Some big games in the league alone including Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester, West Ham and Chelsea. Wow.

Our premier league games on their own, including the game against Bournemouth mean we'll be playing 3 away and 2 at home. - not forgetting that we've just played away at West Brom making that 4 away and 2 at home.... and also having just played Leverkusen away, too, making that 3 away games on the bounce including tomorrow! Ouch!!
The Leverkusen home match in that mix obviously isn't at the lane either, so it's going to be a massive test Until 26th Nov and is going to feel like we've hardly played a home game in that time.
Squad rotation is going to be so essential and we need to do everything we can to keep players fit.

Huge month of football ahead.

COYS

 

Hoping that Boruc is feeling charitable again, a similar performance offering Jansen a couple tomorrow would be ideal

 

One of several this season (it goes with wanting to compete on both the PL and CL fronts) .