Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

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Sunday 21st January 4pm
Premier League
St Mary's Stadium​

A surprisingly comfortable win against Everton mirrored the performance and result at Goodison.
Southampton were held at Vicarage Road, despite taking a two goal lead, but they were unfortunate.
Doucoure's late equaliser was put home with his hand and should probably have been disallowed.
Will this injustice fire them up or will the manner of the result make some heads go down?

It's been less than a month since our first game against Sunday's hosts and it's not been a nice few weeks for them.
The pressure on the other Mauricio has increased, as their winless run in the Premier League extended to ten games.
Claude Puel's 8th place finish and a cup final seem like distant memories and a relegation battle looms.
Victory over an old coach who won't receive a happy welcome would be quite a boost for the current manager.

What needs to change for them? They have issues at both ends of the pitch, frankly.
The current run has seen them keep only one clean sheet, though it was against Man Utd at Old Trafford.
Virgil van Dijk joining Liverpool in the January window probably won't have helped things there, either.
Scoring goals is also a big issue for them, especially with the absence of top scorer Charlie Austin.
Shane Long's broken his long barren spell for them though, so he may kick on from there.

A narrow win over Fulham in the FA Cup might offer them some hope, though.
Following it up with a score draw at Watford isn't the worst way to go, despite the way it happened.
Ward-Prowse adding goals to his game offers them some real threat from midfield, too.

The game at St Mary's last season was one of our slower starts, followed by a powerful comeback.
Poor defending allowed van Dijk to put away a free header from a very early free-kick.
The home side were very much on top for the first 15 minutes, then quickly fell apart and collapsed.
Alli headed home an equaliser after 18 minutes and Kane put us ahead from a corner just after the break.
Redmond was sent off shortly after that and late goals from Son and Alli put the game to bed:

Our game at Wembley last month was mostly notable for Harry Kane's record breaking goals.
His first-half double seemed inevitable against a very negative and defensive visiting side.
An Alli goal after half-time was swiftly followed by another from Son and it seemed like the game was done.
Some attacking subs put life back into Saints though, as Boufal and Tadic sandwiched another goal from Kane:

Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Harry Winks all miss out again through injury.
Charlie Austin, Maya Yoshida and Matt Targett will sit this one out for Southampton.
Neither side has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Walker-Peters, Wanyama, Sissoko, Lamela, Llorente.
League form: LWWWDW.

Saints: McCarthy; Soares, Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand; Romeu, Hojbjerg; Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Davis; Long.
Subs: Forster, Bednarek, Lemina, Pied, Boufal, Sims, Gabbiadini.
League form: LDLDLD.

Referee: Kevin Friend.

TV: Sky Sports.

Does anything need changing from the win over Everton?
Should we rotate our fullbacks as normal or should that wait for the FA Cup match next weekend?
Is our bench properly balanced or should we modify it?

 

Posted 10 minutes ago, so it's clear that I haven't watched it yet:

 

No Paul Stewart again

 

Next appearance is 4 February.

 

Pre-match stuff ...

 

Vorm/ Gazza
Aurier, Dave, Jan, Davies
Dier, Dembele
Alli, Eriksen, Son
Kane

Gazza/ Vorm, Tripps, KWP, Wanyama, Lamela, Sissoko, Nando.

 

What’s up with Eriksen?

 

I wonder who Eriksen is signing for?

 

And Hugo

 

Both are ill, apparently.

Would have preferred to see Lamela come in for Eriksen, not Sissoko.

 

Last chance to sell Sissoko before the summer. < shop window >

 

Couldn't we just have played with ten men...oh wait we are

 

Piss off Jamie

 

He's not 6'8" and useless so we can rule out Chelsea.

 

Gutted that Eriksen isnt playing. I think we need to face reality, Sissoko seems to be well in favour with Poch.
Be intersting if we play Sissoko down the right in a 4231 or play 442 with a diamond with Dele in behind Son and Kane.
Could possibly be 3-4-2-1 with Dier moving back into defence and Sissoko partnering Dembele.

 

Am ill today...some mo fo is drilling their way out of my skull and I am freezing...I have climbed out of my death bed to see FECKING SIS FECKING SOKO STARTING

They can Feck right off ... their ONE job today is to make me feel better and the feckers start SIS FECKING SOKO ?
Have a fecking word with yourself MO PO you dumbass MO FO cos when we lose you will need the PO PO to save you from my wrath