[OMT] Tottenham Hotspur v Stoke City

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Stoke City host Tottenham Hotspur at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday 26th April 2014 (KO 15:00) in the 36th round of 2013-14 Premier League matches.

Stoke come into the match in 10th place in the Premier League on 44 points with Spurs in 6th place on 63 points. This will be the 87th 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.

The match at White Hart Lane in December 2012 finished in a goalless draw. The match had few clear-cut chances for either team.

A Steven Nzonzi header after just 3 minutes put Stoke ahead in the match at Britannia Stadium in May 2013 but Clint Dempsey equalised after 20 minutes. The winning goal came from Emmanuel Adebayor seven minutes from time.

Ryan Shawcross handled an Emmanuel Adebyor volley and Roberto Soldado scored the resulting penalty at White Hart Lane in December 2013 to put Spurs 1-0 up at half-time. Further goals in the second half from Mousa Dembélé and Aaron Lennon saw a comfortable 3-0 win for Tottenham.

Overall, Spurs have won 43 games, Stoke have won 23 games and the remaining 20 matches of the 86 played have been drawn.

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Full Record of Tottenham Hotspur v Stoke City Matches 1896-2014

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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

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Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 1993-94 to 2013-14

Stoke City Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 2008-09 to 2013-14

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Stewie

 

This is the game I thought Spurs were sure to lose of their last six. Stoke have had big wins at home, and Stoke has been a troublespot for Tottenham for some time.

It's two assists off unusual body parts in two weeks for Eiriksen, with a Kaboul knee following an Adebayor hip. Spurs defending is picking up, only giving up one comedy goal last week, (when Fryers played a perfect one-two with Sidwell). Bizarrely, Paulinho made ESPN's team of the week and not Eirksen this week. Paulinho was good against Fulham, certainly, and has improved steadily from lost puppy in his first game back to dangerous coming forward and aggressive ball winner in his third, but the idea that he was better than Eiriksen, who created two goals again, is inexplicable.

I thought Rodellega embracing Lloris last week after the perfect pass, excellent shot, superb save sequence was what sport should be all about.

Spurs have been playing one funky formation, featuring four exposed defenders (three of whom often venture forward), four attacking midfielders and two strikers, with one of the strikers doubling as the linkup between defense and attack. It's not something anyone would draw up on paper. On the other hand, it's designed to score goals, and it's been scoring them. Giving Eiriksen Ade, Kane, Chadli, Paulinho and Kaboul as targets was always liable to do that. You could look at it as a spirited attempt to make the most of the talents of Eiriksen, Ade and Lloris (and possibly Paulinho as well), who may be our outstanding players.

Will it be enough to reverse the tendencies of Spurs to drop points at Stoke, and of Stoke to beat higher ranked teams at home?

 

Everytime we play stoke I remember that game in nov 2011 when crouch hand balled for their first goal, ade was ruled offside when he was onside by 2 yards, when we were denied the most outrageous penalty for shirt pulling and kaboul was sent off...that was one cock of a ref...was it foy?

Also remember bale scoring a shoulder high volley there in august 2010...brilliant goal

 

Stoke are a completely different team under Hughes; one which i think we should beat quite comfortably. However, the usual lapses of concentration and poor decision making at the back could easily see us lose this one.

We'll need Eriksen to continue his run of 4 goals and 5 assists in the last 5 games, as I currently don't see anyone else offering us a spark, right now.

Adebayor has gone quiet recently, so It'd be nice to see Soldado get a run in the team. His movement is actually very good, so he and Eriksen could work well together. With the added support of Kane, who seems to be growing with each game, it'd could be a good combo, as they all offer something different.

We've got to sort out these defensive mistakes, though. isn't it 19 or 20 errors leading to goals now? I'm pretty sure that's almost double anyone else's record so far this season.

 

https://vine.co/v/M1IzqbBp0vO

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Chris "I got hit by the ball " Foy.

 

I think Ade has still been ok despite the fact he hasn't scored in his last 2 matches, he and Kane have been working pretty hard leading the line and the link up play has been fairly decent for a brand new partnership. I'd like to give it some time and see if it can blossom. Kane is improving game-by-game and Ade for the most part has been a revelation since his re-introduction to the team. Soldado will have to bide his time (not that there's long left), he's had enough chances to impress and failed miserably most of the time, his freekick when he came on for Kane on Saturday summed up his season - very disappointing. Unlike the start of the season, the attack isn't what's letting us down so I'm gonna use the old cliché and say don't fix what isn't broken.

Like you say it's the defence that needs sorting out, far too many errors. What's annoying is that individually, we have some very talented players yet it seems so hard to get them working well as a defensive unit. I know going more attack-minded will leave the defence more open but the mistakes they're making isn't down to a lack of support all the time, it's just sheer calamitous defending and lack of concentration. Maybe a new defensive coach is needed, just look at what Pulis is doing with Palace, their defenders aren't a patch on ours when considering quality and yet they look far better unit at present than we do.

 

Eriksen playing his best football from the left and Kane being given his chance to shine and grow as a player, neither of which would have happened without Sherwood as manager so nice to see you handing Tim a couple of compliments.

 

So..... Sherwood's achievements to date, other than inheriting the skills of Eriksen, are:

1. Not ostracising the only proven world class outfield player (as his predecessor had done).
2. Bringing into the first team - and then being over-reliant on - a midfield 'prospect' (who may or may not be better than the player sent out on loan).
3. In the absence of any alternative, played another youth 'prospect' forward who has rewarded him with a few goals against lower opposition (and that is not a criticism of Kane)
4. Continued to play a make-shift defence which leaks mistakes and goals. And at the same time selling one decent RB prospect (Smith) sending another out on loan (Fredericks)
5. Potentially ostracised one of the few players who showed the requisite passion and commitment.... (latest comments about 'professionalism' suggest that Sandro will not feature in the next squad regardless of fitness)


Errrrr..... that's it!!

Stoke under Hughes are no mugs and unless we set up faster and smarter than we have managed in the last few games, then we will get the square root of **** all from this game.

Bring on the close season and an escape from this torment!!

 

With the icing on the cake, the best win rate of any premier league manager (including my Father, Redknapp). Impressive for a manager with his "L plates" still attached.

But as for Smith, he wasn't able to make the grade, I liked him and thought he would make it but he hasn't been given a chance by Sherwood, Avb & Redknapp so that tells you he wasn't able to make the grade as one of them would have taken a chance. Federicks looked ok in the Europa league but so has Naughton (a player that gets slated) so I wouldn't have counted on either for the first team as an option to shore up the defence.

 

Naughton hasn't looked the part - period!! He's been a complete liability at first team level - at LB or preferred RB.
Smith was apparently good enough to regularly perform for the England U21, but didn't get a run out at first team level. He wasn't even close to a first team slot (by age or competition) when Harry was manager so that's hardly relevant.

As for the win rate..... Less than half a season with the majority of games against 'lesser' opposition..... And with results salvaged ffrom the wreckage of a variety of defensive and tactical calamities..... You can perform wonders with statistics!

 

Adam Smith is 22/23, and like I say, I rated him and Redknapp, Avb and Sherwood had all said he's a Premier league fullback.

But talk is cheap when it comes to rating youngsters.

Martin Jol once said Lee Barnard was one of the club's most talented players but never played the guy so much the same with Smith. He wasn't a realistic option especially when we have Naughton.

 

Stoke are currently 4th in the form table, having picked up 13 points from their last 6 games, somehow.
Our away form has dipped horribly in recent weeks too, so this will be a hard game, I think.
I wonder how many goals we'll go down before we start playing?

 

I really wasn't sure if you were serious or not until that!! Fair play - you wound me in on that one!!

 

Capoue's returned to training today:

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There's three midfielders that'd walk into most sides, yet will struggle to make the bench against Stoke!

 

Reminds me of 'The Paper Chase.'

"Look to your left. Look to your right. One of the people you just looked at won't be here next year."

Except I wouldn't be surprised if it was two.

I like all three, as it happens, Dembele especially. But we have a manager who doesn't like either DMs or midfielders who move the ball forward slowly and cautiously.

 

"Look to your left. Look to your right. One of the people you just looked at won't be here next year."

And your name is ... ??

 

Sandro must play. He has some unfinished business to sort out with Adam. It should be the closest thing to a public stoning this side of Jeddah.

 

Only at Spurs could we somehow find a way to **** up a decent selection of midfielders.

Stick Capoue and Sandro on him. There's not many players I'd wish a career ending injury on but Adam is an exception, horrible **** and horrible footballer, the day he's out of the game the better.

 

Chadli's been okay, but what about Paulinho as CAM and Sandro playing?

Though on the other hand Chadli's height and size would be an asset against Stoke. I'd say sit Lennon, except he just had about his best cross all year last game, and with his left foot, to boot. Or his left boot, to boot.