Rejoice, all ye fellow lilywhites. Admittedly it is also with a degree of trepidation (Old Trafford will do that to a Spurs fan) but goodness me it is wonderful finally to be able to look forward to Spurs in Premiership action tonight. ‘Tis with delight therefore that I invite you to gather round and peruse with me the permutations of team selection for the evening's festivities.

While Aston Villa are reported to be still keen on taking Kyle Walker on a permanent basis, a potential solution has emerged. Let's sell them Alan Hutton!

Manager Harry Redknapp has declared that he has no intention of letting Walker go, whereas Hutton looks certain to have played his last game at the Lane.

It's maybe not surprising that some areas of the media are questioning the official explanation for Heurelho Gomes' absence from the Spurs squad last night. Tottenham have said that the Brazilian was suffering from a back injury and while we wouldn't want to question that statement, others have hinted at a smokescreen.

Having given your verdict on the player of the season, it's time to have your say regarding your favourite goals from the last campaign.

As you would expect from Spurs, there were some stunning strikes and many of our goals from 2010-11 featured on Match of the Day and Sky's regular competitions, but which of these really stands out?

Is anyone starting to get frustrated at the way Spurs conduct their transfer activity?

With our backs to the wall, when players have had their heads turned, you have to admire how Daniel Levy has drained millions from other chairman for the likes of Berbatov, Carrick and Keane.

Unfortunately the flip side of this approach has meant that Spurs are stuck with a large group of players that are beyond the age where they can improve, and their wages and valuations are so high we can't get rid of them.

And so, finally, off we go, in the rather unorthodox settings of ITV4 and Edinburgh. It is a truth universally acknowledged that any Scottish team whose name does not rhyme with either "Beltic" or "Changers" is there for the taking, so first game of the season or not, this lot must be destroyed. ‘Arry has understandably enough made noises about fielding kids and reserves in the Europa League, but while none of us want injuries ahead of the United trip on Mon, it would nevertheless make sense to field a full-strength side tonight.

Blinking heck, that was dashed hard work – to which end our vanquished opponents deserve credit, while we can also direct sneers of ill-disguised derision at those fools who suggested beforehand that while there is no such thing as an easy game in the Premiership, if there were then Fulham at home would probably be it.

Around ten days ago I mused that I would have settled for eight points from our four Christmas-New Year games. Three games in and we already have nine, which means that the riotously good fun continues into 2011 – still not yet out of the title race, most definitely still in the Top Four race and looking down upon the rotters from Stamford Bridge, languishing beneath us.

And now for something completely different. At third (and, later fourth) round stage the FA Cup hardly constitutes fixture congestion, so the question of where it stands in our list of priorities can probably be deferred to another day.

Bingo cards out then, as we look to cross off the names of various squad members last season posing merrily in the club photocall back in August.

I'm finding it really hard to write anything in relation to Saturday's game. I'm not sure why that is but maybe it's the fact I can see 4th spot slowly disappearing into the distance? As a result this will be short and sweet.

We were unlucky with injuries at left back but with only 10 minutes on the clock before Bale had to leave the action and judging by his previous left back performances this season it might not have made much difference.

All in all this has been a bad few days for us fans of FC Hotspur of Tottenham, or whatever the inevitable spin-off movement will be called once our heroes have moved off to Stratford, or Geneva, or the moon. One point for our lot, but wins and goals galore for the other Top Four-ites (bar Man City, sunk by Darren Bent, most entertainingly) means that the 50th anniversary of the Double won't end in a Disney-esque finale with Ledley emulating the great Danny Blanchflower, hoisted aloft team-mates' shoulders, gleaming trophy in his mitts.

Life without Gareth Bale? It began after 10 minutes last weekend, will continue today and, if scurrilous rumours are to be believed may even take on a more permanent edge, with Inter understandably keen to see "Year abroad" added to his already astonishing CV in the near future. Mercifully, this is one of the transfer window's less likely rumours, but his absence nevertheless seems likely this afternoon.

Well if this doesn't get your juices flowing I suggest you go and boil your head. Tottenham Hotspur vs AC Milan. It's the sort of fixture that makes me want to don nothing more than a loin-cloth and go wrestle a bear, then save a small child - and svelte, scantily-clad brunette – from a burning building, before reducing Colonel Gadaffi to tears with a devastating best-of-five demolition in Scissors-Paper-Stone.

Alan Hutton is set to miss the rest of the season after tearing his cartliage in training on Thursday. The former Rangers right back will undergo surgery and is likely to be out for some time.

On the one hand, Hutton was looking like being on his way in any case at the end of this campaign but with Tottenham's defensive crisis in the headlines, Harry will have wanted him fit and ready in case there were any more problems at the back.

Being in the Champions League's been great, hasn't it? The comeback against Young Boys, van der Vaart's all-emotions performance against Twente, Bale vs Inter, winning in Milan, all of it. If we are to fail to make it next season, it'll be a real shame to have to resort to Thursday nights on ITV4 in the Europa League.

While we're all likely to have a similar list of players that we'd like to see leave this summer, we're all probably aware that some of those will still be at the club when August comes around.

Step forward Alan Hutton: Although the Scottish right back had a mixed season at the Lane last time around, a mysterious injury kept him out of the side amidst rumours of a ‘bust up' with Harry Redknapp.

Could the news that we've all been waiting for be just around the corner as reports suggest that new Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish is preparing a bid for Alan Hutton?

When you look at the story, all the pieces of the jigsaw seem to fit but does that mean that it's easier for a journalist to toy with the Spurs fans and make the story up?

Old hat it may be for everyone else, but here at AANP Towers we bounce around the walls like toddlers on a strict diet of fizzy drinks and E-numbers as we await the start of our Premiership season. Still, rather than pacing the corridors, rubbing hands together in feverish anticipation until tomorrow night, it occurred to me that the time is rather ripe for making public the various musings that have echoed around the walls of AANP Towers all summer.

With several players still linked with Spurs as we head towards the last 24 hours of this transfer window, it looks like being a far busier day for Tottenham than it was 12 months ago.

Meanwhile, there is much hope that some of the deadwood will be off the books and the first to leave could be Wilson Palacios with news of an £8m deal to Stoke expected very shortly.

With a few hours to go before the transfer window closes, the only confirmed deasl involving Spurs to date is the signing of Scott Parker from West Ham and David Bentley's loan to the Hammers.

Beyond this, there is a lot of momentum concerning a bid for Gary Cahill which may involve Sebastien Bassong going the other way.

The summer transfer window has finally come to a close, Alan Hutton and Jermaine Jenas both joined from Tottenham to complete our squad for the coming season.

Hutton joins on a four year contract and will be Luke Young's natural replacement, especially with news of Eric Lichaj's hip injury keeping him out for the next four months.

Tottenham fans will tomorrow have to take a look at their new squad list as Harry Redknapp and Daniel Levy had a very busy deadline day. Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has revealed his delight about signing two of Tottenham's players on Wednesday evening, hailing the qualities of both Jermaine Jenas and Alan Hutton.

Phew! It was that time again, and as per usual things were manic. We at In The Stands struggled to keep up with all the kerfuffle and constant will-he-wont-he debacles. However, after much journalistic endeavours, we have managed to finally pin down the most significant transfers on a thoroughly exciting last day of the transfer window.

Spurs late summer looked a lot like the one experienced across North London at Arsenal. What the acquisitions lacked in romance and long term strategic benefit they more than made up for in being effective near-term band-aids. Spurs needed something new at forward and a deep-lying player to both win the ball and start the attack.

The dust may have settled, but it would be frightfully remiss to pootle along any further without casting a beady eye over the various to-ings and fro-ings of the transfer window. Step this way please...

Welcome to the Lane...

Scott Parker

Curiouser and curiouser, we now somehow find ourselves bottom of the table yet with both of last season's Players of the Year in the ranks.

Another international break has come and gone, time to focus on the bread and butter stuff. If you watched England labour to three points against Wales at Wembley this week, as a Villa fan, the line-up may have looked a lot like the image below. It probably stung quite a bit for most of us.

Aston Villa right-back Alan Hutton has hit out at the way Harry Redknapp treated him during his three-year stay at White Hart Lane and described the club as a demoralizing place for many players.

Hutton, who moved to Villa Park this summer, has enjoyed featuring regularly for Alex McLeish's side but ahead of today's visit to QPR, the Scotland international made it a point to criticize his former club.

The qualification for Euro 2012 is almost done. England will be in Poland and/or Ukraine next summer after comfortably finishing top of Group G, albeit by handing Motenegro an unlikely point and a place in the play-offs in the final game. Ireland also made it to the play-offs, and could be drawn against Montenegro, but Wales and Scotland miss out once again.

Chris Herd's performances have rightly earned him quite a few headlines in the last couple of weeks. Initially for the wrong reason, but lately for the right ones.

Alex McLeish has said that he's "a manager's dream; the best trainer at the club".

He will train the way he plays on Saturday by giving it absolutely everything.

What ho, and I trust you are in as fine fettle as AANP, for today's basic algebra lesson is that a win today will take us third, and with a game in hand no less. Crivens! Let's ruddy well get out there, dominate, take the lead, sit back, invite pressure, concede one and hang for dear life for those three points!