Liverpool travel to White Hart Lane on Wednesday for their Barclays Premier League mid-week fixture. The battle between today is between two teams aiming for the prestigious Champions League spot and currently off their mark on that. The two teams had appointed new managers at the start of the new season. Tottenham are currently 7th in the table with 20 points from their 13 matches. Spurs bounced back from a 3 match defeat streak to win 3-1 against West Ham. Liverpool on the other hand are undefeated in the league for eight matches now, but their major concern is that they could only secure 3 wins in those matches. In fact Liverpool have been able to get only 3 wins this season.
Tottenham vs Liverpool
White Hart Lane has not been a great ground for Liverpool over the past few years and Spurs are always an opponent that Liverpool fails to deal with, unlike their London neighbors Chelsea.
Last Season in the corresponding fixture Spurs defeated Liverpool 4-0. Modric who currently plays at Real Madrid scored the opener for Spurs with a brilliant goal from outside the box. Liverpool were unlucky that Daniel Agger who was marking the Croatian had gone down injured right before the goal was scored. Agger had to be substituted and then things got worse for Liverpool as Martin Skrtel who was played in right back position was sent off and then Charlie Adam (now a Stoke City player).
Spurs did well to get the win against in form West Ham. The key man for the Londoners will once again be Gareth Bale. Bale has been in good form and will look to continue his run of good games against Liverpool as well. Bale scored one against the Hammerers as well. In form striker Defoe will once again have to take responsibility for the goals with Adebayor suspended.
Liverpool have been unlucky in front of goal and hence the have so many draws. They were unlucky not to get three points against Everton and Swansea after their goals were ruled offside – controversially. They played well against Newcastle and Chelsea too but their form in the attacking third has let them down. The statistics which show that Suarez has been involved with almost over 80 percentage of the Liverpool goals this season. Liverpool are too dependent on the Uruguayan at this time and will be expecting him to perform with their current shortage of strikers. Key players for Liverpool though are their full backs Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique who have played like the best in the world over the past few weeks. The two almost won the match against Swansea with Enrique scoring off a Johnson cross although it was ruled offside. Enrique scored his first Liverpool goal against Wigan two week ago.
The battle to watch out for today will be between Bale and Johnson. Johnson who likes to go forward will have to be wary of Bale on the counter attack, as the Welsh man is one of the fastest in the world. Johnson although not the quickest is world class defender, he is after all England’s first choice right back. He will be wary of Bale’s solo runs and shots like the one he score against Arsenal in a lost cause.
For Spurs their major agenda will be to keep Suarez quiet and for Liverpool it will be to keep Bale at bay. The match is live on ESPN from 1:15 A.M IST.
Tags: Barclays Premier League, EPL, Football, Liverpool, Premier League, Preview, Spurs, Tottenham, White Hart Lane
