please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur host Stoke City at White Hart Lane on Saturday 22nd December 2012 (KO 15:00) in the 18th round of 2012-13 Premier League matches. Spurs come into the match in 4th place in the Premier League on 29 points with Stoke in 9th place on 24 points. This will be the 84th time the two teams have met. The first ever meeting came at the Victoria Ground when Stoke City were playing as Stoke FC in the old first round of the FA Cup in February 1896 in a match Stoke won 5-0. Stoke had become one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888 and the clubs were drawn together in the third round of the FA Cup in February 1899 at the Victoria Ground with Stoke winning 4-1. The first match at White Hart Lane between the clubs was a friendly played in March 1900 with Spurs, then Champions of the Southern League, beating Stoke 6-0. Spurs joined the Football League for the 1908-09 season, replacing Stoke who had resigned at the end of the previous season for financial reasons. The clubs didn't meet in a League match until April 1920 in the Second Division with Tottenham winning 2-0 at the Lane and 3-1 at the Victoria Ground. The first meeting in Division One came in March 1923 at Stoke which resulted in a 0-0 draw. Spurs won the reverse fixture at the Lane a week later 3-1. The clubs met for five seasons in the Second Division between 1928 to 1933 and for two seasons in Division One from 1934 to 1935. After the Second World War, the clubs met in the modern FA Cup third round in January 1947 at White Hart Lane which resulted in a 2-2 draw with Stoke winning the replay 1-0 thanks to a Stanley Matthews goal. Three years later, Spurs beat Stoke 1-0 away in the third round. Spurs were Football League Champions in 1950-51 and beat Stoke 6-1 at home but could only draw 0-0 away during that season. Every League game played between Spurs and Stoke since WW2 has taken place in the Top Flight, except for season 1977-78 when Spurs spent a single season in Division Two, beating Stoke 3-1 in both matches. The clubs met in the FA Cup in January 1976 with a 1-1 draw at the Lane followed by a 2-1 win for Stoke in the replay. Tottenham Hotspur were founder members of the Premier League in 1992-93 but Stoke City's first season in the competition only came in 2008-09 with Stoke winning 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium and Spurs winning 3-1 at the Lane. During 2009-10, Stoke won 1-0 at White Hart Lane with Spurs winning 2-1 at the Britannia. In 2010-11, Spurs did the "double" over Stoke, winning the away fixture 2-1 with a brace of goals from Gareth Bale and the home fixture 3-2 in April with a double from Peter Crouch and a Luka Modric goal. The teams met for the first time in the Football League (Carling) Cup 3rd round in September 2011 at Stoke and the match finished in a goalless draw after extra time. Stoke went on to win the penalty shoot-out 7-6. Spurs youngster Massimo Luongo penalty was saved by Thomas Sorensen. The 2011-12 Premier League game at the Britannia Stadium in December was won 2-1 by Stoke with a Matthew Etherington brace putting the Potters 2-0 up at half-time. Tottenham's Emmanuel Adebayor pulled a goal back from the penalty spot after 62 minutes but defender Younes Kaboul was sent-off after collecting two yellow cards. The match at White Hart Lane in March 2012 resulted in a 1-1 draw. After a goalless first half, Cameron Jerome put the visitors ahead after 75 minutes but a Rafael van der Vaart header in the dying moments of the game ensured that honours were even. Overall, Spurs have won 41 games, Stoke have won 23 games and the remaining 19 matches of the 83 played have been drawn. please log in to view this image Full Record of Tottenham Hotspur v Stoke City Matches 1896-2012 please log in to view this image They Played for Spurs & Stoke... Paul Allen Garry Brooke Joe Brough George Clawley Garth Crooks Peter Crouch Matthew Etherington Ray Evans Márton Fülöp Eiður Guðjohnsen Ken Hancock Archie Heggarty Stephen Kelly Fred Latham Billy Leech Gerry Mahon Ian Moores James Morton Wilson Palacios Tony Parks Jimmy Robertson Hans Segers Paul Stewart Charlie Wilson Jonathan Woodgate please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 1993-94 to 2012-13 Stoke City Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 2008-09 to 2012-13 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Ian Moores looks like he's just shat another players leg, and has Crouchie just poked himself in the eye?
They always seem to be tight affairs and you can guarantee that Spurs will concede at least one goal.
Stoke are the antithesis of Spurs so it's always a buzz to win this one. If we can cope with Stoke we are showing a toughness not traditional to Spurs. I don't knock Stoke because there are many ways to play football and you have to play to your strengths but it always reminds me of Ali against Liston. The win for Ali was a win for skill and imagination over brute strength. I'm looking forward to Spurs floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.
Always seems like you guys are at home (I know your not but just feels that way). Ball-ache of a fixture this. They really are tough to break down and score against. Glad by this time next month we don't play Stoke again.
Urgh. Stoke. This is probably the fixture I hate most. (In fact, the reverse fixture) Every time we play them we end up getting a **** ref like foy or someone who just gives us absolutely nothing. - taking "contact sport" to a whole new level. We have struggled at times to break down teams this season. Stoke is likely to be the toughest one yet. This has a frustrating 0-0 draw written all over it. - perhaps even an away win from a set piece. Stoke sit joint 3rd best, on games lost this season and have had 9 draws. We're going to have to be on top of our game to break them down!!!
They remind me of a bunch of cloggers possessing no skill or flair. A boring mid to lower table team who play in the top flight for a few years and then,mercifully get relegated. The sooner this match is behind us the better. 2-0 hopefully more.
Rugby FC are the team I hate the most outside of the London derbies so I REALLY want us to win this one, and win in it in style. We'll need big lads at the back, so Caulker and Dawson (if fit, which I reckon he will be) must surely come in for Naughton and Gallas. Hopefully Bale will be back for the game and Scotty will be fitter to come on and play a bit more than a 4/5 minute cameo. Hopefully Ade hasn't picked up a calf/ hammy strain as that's what it looked like when he walked off. Team I'd like to see would be: Lloris, Walker, *Dawson, Caulker, Vertonghen Lennon, Sandro, Dembele, **Bale ***Ade, Defoe * - Gallas. ** - Townsend. *** - Dempsey and play 4-5-1. Subs: Friedel, Naughton, Gallas, Dempsey, Sig, Townsend, Parker. Leaving out Hudd, he's just not been the same player under AVB, not sure why but he's been so ineffective in 90% of the games he's featured in this season and doesn't merit a place in the squad at the moment. Would love to win this by 3 or 4 goals, will obviously take another 1-0 though just providing we win this. We just have to WIN!!! COYS
I'll take that tip! I know the market is young (no money at all on Betfair) but I reckon the opening odds are worth a punt. Tottenham Clean Sheet: Yes @2.36 (~11/8) No @1.66 (~2/3)
It's difficult to win in style against them, I think we have to try and take the points anyway we can. The positive thing is that we're strong in midfield and have been defending set pieces well this season, although I'm still not a fan of pulling everyone back for corners it seems to work. 442 might work well against Stoke, especially at home but I just hope if we do play both strikers we don't have one of them always dropping off like we have in other games when we've played the 2 of them this season.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8338969/ Bale and Dawson should be back for the game. No mention of Ade.
I still don't think I'm over that travesty of the Stoke away game last season. Is that the worst refereeing performance ever?
it's one of the worst I've ever seen, Vim. Luke, those stats are worrying. 9 goals in 16 games?! That's a brick wall we'll get very frustrated with and struggle to break down I reckon. I really hate this game with a passion. do we know who's in charge yet? if it's Foy, we might as well not turn up, or perhaps start the first draft of the official complaint to the FA as of tomorrow morning!
The summary of an Arsenal blog on that game, Vim: "So overall it was an absolute shocker for Chris Foy. Wrong decisions favoured Stoke by nearly 2:1 and he only got 1 out of 3 calls right for Spurs." I can't recall a worse one in the Premier League, in all honesty. PleaseNotFoy.
We often have these little tripods in the Pl don't we? Everton played Spurs and then Stoke played Everton and now Spurs play Stoke. I don't like this as often we lose these little contrivances. Everton beat Spurs and then drew with Stoke so what do Spurs do against Stoke? It happened last season. We beat a team and then that team we beat beat the team we played next but that team beat us and I think Stoke were involved then too. I just hope we beat them but it'll be close I think although I'd like a comfortable win. My disposition won't take too much more of this.
