Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Swansea City

please log in to view this image

Saturday 16th September 5.30pm
Premier League
Wembley Stadium​

Our first win of the season at our temporary home has been achieved.
Now we have to do it in the league or the talk of a curse will linger on.
It's our second of three home games in seven days too, so we need to continue our good momentum.
The players' confidence should be high after an impressive win against a very good Dortmund side.

Swansea have had a mixed start to the campaign and they've lost some big players.
Gylfi Sigurdsson joining Everton was a long and painful saga, while we nicked Fernando Llorente on deadline day.
Roque Mesa, Sam Clucas and Renato Sanchez joined their midfield, while Wilfried Bony returned to lead the line.
They also loaned in Tammy Abraham from Chelsea, who's a dangerous, young striker.
Paul Clement will be looking to build on his rescue act of the last campaign, where they narrowly avoided the drop.

Their opening fixtures haven't exactly gone to plan, but only their most recent result will have hurt too badly.
They started the campaign with a goalless draw at St Mary's and followed with a thumping by Utd.
A much changed side saw off MK Dons 4-1 in the League Cup and it seemed to give them a boost.
A fairly comfortable 2-0 win at Palace seemed a decent result, but they lost the next game.
Despite having some chances, they failed to find the net and the Geordies stole all three points at the Liberty.
Improvements are needed quickly if they're to avoid another relegation battle.

This was one of our most impressive early season results in the last campaign.
Many people will only remember it because of Dele Alli's dive for the opening goal though, which is unfortunate.
It opened the floodgates after a lot of early pressure, as Harry Kane put away the resultant penalty.
Heung-Min Son scored a fantastic second before half-time and it was one-way traffic all day.
Son's run allowed Kane to get a second early after the break and the game was all but over.
Eriksen bundled home Alli's half-saved shot, then added another from a Sissoko pass to add some gloss.
The visitors didn't manage a single shot all day and looked dispirited and outclassed.

The return game at the Liberty was a much tighter and tougher affair.
Spurs' old boy Wayne Routledge gave them an early lead and they fought hard to keep it.
They held on well and looked like taking all three points, until Eriksen's deflected shot fell to the feet of Alli.
With three minutes left on the clock it looked like we'd grabbed a point, but the players weren't happy with that.
Janssen's backheeled nutmeg put Son in to make it 2-1 in injury time, before Eriksen added another.
A morale boosting win collapsed into a painful, stinging loss and it's one that they won't have forgotten.

Neither side has any suspensions for this game.
We'll still be missing Rose, Wanyama, N'Koudou and Lamela, but the latter two have returned to training.
The Swans are without Ki, Dyer, Bi and Britton.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen; Trippier, Dier, Sissoko, Davies; Eriksen, Alli; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Aurier, Walker-Peters, Dembele, Winks, Son, Llorente.

Swans: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Sanches, Clucas, Carroll; Fer; Abraham, Ayew.
Subs: Nordfeldt, Rangel, van der Hoorn, Mesa, Narsingh, Routledge, Bony.

Referee: Mike Dean.

TV: BT Sport 1.

Do we need to make many changes from the impressive win over Dortmund?
Should we use the same system or switch to the four at the back that we've used in other games?
Should Alli return to the side and if so, then who should make way?
Did Aurier's debut earn him another start or should Trippier or Walker-Peters get back into the team?

 

Let Aurier start, just to allow Trippier a bit more injury recovery.
KWP I assume is in the starting XI for the League Cup game.

 

Played for both
Fernando Llorente
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Bean Davies
Tom Carroll
Michel Vorm
Kyle Naughton
Steven Caulker
Wayne Routledge

 

Did you use last years banner in your post PNP or have we finished the new WHL ahead of shedule?

 

In some ways I'd like to see the same team that started the CL match for this one.
Aurier deserves to keep his place in the team, as does Son. But I think we'll see Poch rotate somewhat.
Wouldn't be at all surprised if Sissoko starts this one in place of Dembele, Trippier for Aurier, and Dele for Son.

 

Plus the great Cliff Jones.

 

As LB to give Davies the rest. Tripps can play at RB if we play Serge tomorrow.

 

Think we'll see some rotation, Wednesday night was a real tough one and so players would've likely been feeling the effects of that on Thursday.

I'd go with:
Hugo
Toby, Sanchez, Jan
Tripps, Dier, Winks, Davies
Alli, Eriksen
Kane

Vorm, Aurier, KWP, Dembele, Sissoko, Son, Llorente

Aurier had an immense debut but we shouldn't just be casting Tripps aside, he had a very good game against Everton and will be fresher than Aurier on Saturday. Dembele likely won't be able start, so I'd give Winks his first start of the season. Sonny tired badly in the second half the other night, to be expected after no pre-season, so I'd have him on the bench to make an impact if need be. Quite tempting to maybe start Llorente against his old side, not sure how he could fit though.

 

Given that Big Vic, Erik Lamela and DoF are out injured, that bench is definitely getting there. If we get everyone fit, we can rest players.

Just roll that round the old grey matter...........resting players and still putting out a squad of experienced internationals (not necessarily seasoned).........and Winksy! Sorry Winksy!

 

I agree with Dier Hard's team. So basically we're ****ed.

 

Feel we should start Aurier and Sanchez and not Trippier. Whoever starts let's hope we come of age at Wembley today.

 

Anyone suffered a problem with Wembley tickets and able to help with some advice?

I ordered some extra tickets for today's game and they should have been sent by e-mail. I didn't check that they'd arrived before last night and of course, they bloody haven't. The ticket office is currently closed. Am I best off going to Wembley early to sort this or will the ticket office phones open up 4 hours before KO?

 

My advice would be to get to Wembley early and get it sorted there. There was chaos on Tuesday night because loads of cards weren't scanning on the turnstiles, fans coming in 30 minutes after the game had kicked off.

There are/were teething problems, so although your issue is a different ticketing issue, the ticket staff on Wednesday apparently were clueless and so contributed to the queue lengths.

Good luck !

 

And Terry Medwin.

 

Vertonghen at left-back? Not for me, I'm afraid.

 

Ok, so I don't think anyone saw this coming.

Vertonghen at left back?
Sissoko starting?

Guessing we'll look like this:

Lloris
Trippier Toby Sanchez Vertonghen
Dier Sissoko
Son dele Eriksen
Kane

Hmm. Not quite sure what to make of that.

 

We're the ones ****ed today

 

please log in to view this image

 

Wait until you realise that we're starting with Son as the left wing back...