Premier League Preview: Stoke City vs Tottenham Hotspur
Kick-off: Saturday April 7, 15:00 Venue: bet365 Stadium
Spurs will look to fasten their grip on the top four as they travel to Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.
For the first time in several weeks, Mauricio Pochettino’s men are able to look above them rather than over their shoulders, having opened up an eight-point gap over Chelsea with a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge – the club’s first in 28 years.
They sit two points behind Liverpool, who are playing in the early kick-off in a Merseyside derby against Everton – the Reds were the last side to take a point off Spurs, and that was at the start of February.
Stoke should represent the perfect opportunity for Tottenham to continue their impressive run. Potters fans will need no reminding of their record against the Lilywhites, who have beaten them by four goals in all of their last four meetings. Harry Kane has scored eight times across that spell, so it’s fair to say the hosts will not welcome his return to fitness.
In their most recent fixture, Paul Lambert’s side held out reasonably well before capitulating to a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal. Even prior to that result, Stoke had comfortably the worst defensive record in the league, having conceded an abysmal 61 goals in 32 games this season; they are the only club to have let in more than 60 goals in that period.
Team news:
Kane managed 16 minutes against Chelsea, though his team-mates managed just fine without him thanks to an absolute golazo from Christian Eriksen and a Dele Alli brace. The striker’s availability means it is just Harry Winks who misses out with an ankle problem. Toby Alderweireld’s future is likely to be brought into further doubt if he doesn’t make the squad again.
Stoke could be without Kurt Zouma, who is set to join Eric Choupo-Moting, Lee Grant, and Konstantinos Stafylidis on the sidelines.
Expected line-ups:
Stoke: Butland, Johnson, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Pieters, Bauer, Allen, Ndiaye, Sobhi, Diouf, Shaqiri
Tottenham: Lloris, Trippier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Kane
Did you know?
The visitors – and particularly his best friend Heung-Min Son – might have been hoping for a reunion with former Spur Kevin Wimmer. The Austrian cost £18million last summer but his season has been pretty disastrous so far and Lambert has not yet included him in a single match-day squad. The centre-back has now been put on a special fitness training programme, per the Telegraph.
Prediction:
Tottenham have dropped points on five occasions this season against the Premier League’s bottom-half sides, drawing with Swansea, West Brom, West Ham, Southampton, and Watford. It will still take a huge upset for Stoke to take anything from them here, however, with the relegation candidates 18th in the form rankings and 19th in the actual table.
Against Chelsea, Pochettino changed things at half-time by swapping Erik Lamela and Son’s positions, which worked wonders for the latter’s pace and allowed Spurs to press more effectively. Do that at the bet365, and they should win comfortably again.
Stoke City 0-2 Tottenham
